Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned that Kyrgyzstan stands on the brink of civil war and threatens to become a ‘second Afghanistan’.
He said there was a strong risk that Kyrgyzstan could split in two following last week's uprising in which President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted and an interim government installed.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Mr Medvedev suggested Mr Bakiyev should formally step down to defuse the crisis.
Mr Medvedev said it was Russia's task to help the Kyrygz people find a calm way out of the crisis.
Yesterday, President Bakiyev suggested hinted he could leave Kyrgyzstan if the interim government guaranteed his and his family’s safety.
‘I am not clutching at my armchair and I have not said that I am not going to step down under any circumstances,’ Mr Bakiyev told reporters in Jalalabad.
The President fled to the southern region, where he still has strong support, in the wake of last week’s violent revolt.
‘What I said is that if the issues of my personal safety and the safety of my family members will be resolved ... and if there is stability in Kyrgyzstan, then I am ready to consider this question,’ he said.
‘To argue that the president of Kyrgyzstan would not under any circumstances step down and that he would not leave the country is not the way the question should be posed,’ he said.
