Yerlan Karin: Almazbek Atambayev leaves ambiguous legacy to successor

«Successor of Atambayev will have to deal with his heavy legacy,» Kazakhstan political scientist Yerlan Karin commented on his Facebook page on the final press conference of Almazbek Atambayev, at which he summed up his presidency.

According to Karin, Almazbek Atambayev with his shocking speeches and anti-Kazakh rhetoric is trying to lead the public opinion in his country from discussing the results of his presidency. Because the conclusions are not very comforting: Atambayev resigns as president, leaving an unenviable legacy to his successor.

«So, in economic policy, he couldn’t achieve an improvement in the situation, only aggravating the already difficult situation of the country. The deficit of the state budget in 2016 amounted to 20 billion soms. For Kyrgyzstan this is the highest record for the last 25 years! Compared with 2011, the year of Atambayev’s presidency, the deficit of the state budget grew by more than 50 percent! At the same time, internal sources of covering the deficit amounted to 6.5 billion soms, and external sources — 19 billion,» he added.

The outgoing president used external sources (about 75 percent) to cover the deficit, increasing the size of the state debt. It is 62 percent of GDP! Also a record figure for 25 years.

Yerlan Karin

«Hence the entire history of the rejection of the $ 100 million provided by Kazakhstan for a specific purpose, namely, the organization of technical assistance for integration into the EEU. With this money allocated within the framework of the Union’s general strategy for the modernization of phytosanitary and customs control, Atambayev and his team «tried simply to patch holes in the budget, but when they realized that this wouldn’t work, they organized the whole circus,» the political scientist wrote.

He added that, in political terms, the results of Atambayev’s presidency «are also ambiguous.»

The political field is divided, he cleaned out all opponents. He quarreled with all his recent comrades-in-arms, with whom he made the April revolution in 2010.

Yerlan Karin

«Religious radicalism is growing in the country. Kyrgyzstan’s relations with a number of countries have been worsened, not only with Kazakhstan. At the same time, he continues to make all kinds of populist statements, deliberately reduces the field for maneuvers to the next president in improving Kazakh-Kyrgyz relations. Therefore, the general conclusion is very negative: Atambayev leaves, evading even attempts to resolve all these issues. And now his successor will have to deal with all this difficult legacy,» the political scientist summed up.