On 7 August the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan summoned the Charge d’Affaires a.i. of Belarus in Bishkek, Syarhei Ivanou over the meeting of Alyaksandr Lukashenka with former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
As the Foreign Ministry noted, they voiced to the Belarusian diplomat a protest over the continuation of official public contacts with Bakiyev convicted in Kyrgyzstan.
Bishkek also considers it “fully unacceptable to use the state symbols of the Kyrgyz Republic and mention the Kyrgyz-Belarusian friendship during this meeting, which fundamentally does not meet the principles of friendship and cooperation between the two countries”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan called on the official Minsk to change its approach to this situation and focus on a positive agenda of bilateral cooperation.
Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown in 2010 and soon found himself with a Belarusian passport in Minsk. In Belarus, in addition to citizenship, he received a plot of land in Drazdy, near the residence of Lukashenka, where he built a house worth $2 million (according to realtors). At the same time, the fugitive president noted, he did not “sit on the neck of the Belarusian state,” working part-time as a consultant and helping with children and grandchildren. In his homeland, he was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
The reason for the August 6 meeting of the fugitive president of Kyrgyzstan with Alyaksandr Lukashenka was Bakiyev’s 70th anniversary.
