Kyrgyzstan - the birthplace of Santa Claus or the All-Union health resort?
This year, the republics of the former USSR are celebrating their long-awaited independence from Russia. Over the past 20 years, some republics managed to start sustainable economic development, declaring at least the official level, their allied loyalty to Russia, other, more “democratic” regimes, rush to the West, not tired of repeating how hard their citizens lived under the Union, although to recognize that in material terms, and they live in recent years, more or less well. Still others do not know how to properly dispose of so unexpectedly independence that fell on their heads of 20 years ago, because before the USSR was founded, their states, at least in the current boundaries drawn by the Bolsheviks, simply did not exist. One of such state formations is Kyrgyzstan.On the anniversary of independence, the former Soviet republics flaunt each other, showing off their visible and invisible achievements over the past 20 years. What does Kyrgyzstan boast? The first thing that comes to mind is the construction of “Karasu” monster markets in the Osh region and “Dordoy” near Bishkek. Due to the existence of these markets, Kyrgyzstan gained the image of the largest store of Chinese consumer goods in Eurasia. In the economy of this country, the re-export of Chinese goods plays a leading role. Such is the place of modern independent Kyrgyzstan in the global division of labor. The promising agricultural sector of the country has degraded. During the years of independence, not a single new enterprise was built in the country, and military production left over from Soviet times was either completely destroyed or privatized and turned into bazaars. Some enterprises eke out a miserable existence, producing household utensils, unable to compete with all the same cheap Chinese trash.
The second locomotive of the Kyrgyz economy after re-export is labor migration. According to the most modest estimates, the number of Kyrgyz labor migrants working in Russia and Kazakhstan amounts to a million people. According to some estimates, the amount sent annually by them to their homeland, reaches one and a half billion dollars.
What could be the future of Kyrgyzstan and is it possible without Russia?
It is clear that Kyrgyzstan is one of the strategic frontiers of the Russian world. The Russian presence in the republic still remains quite significant, although it continues to decline rapidly. The problems of Russians in this country are not much different from the problems of our compatriots in other CIS countries: all the same ridiculous renaming of native Russian settlements, all the same narrowing of the scope of the Russian language, all the same total ethnocracy. At the same time, there is an obvious ideological vacuum in the country: “Kyrgyzstan is the country of Manas”, “Central Asian Switzerland”, “Island of Democracy” are just some of the names of Kyrgyzstan that have been promoted by its so often changing authorities in recent years. Against the background of this ideological confusion and the strengthening of Russophobia, the image of Russia is, by and large, still very significant, our country is respected among ordinary Kyrgyz. This advantage can not be used: the promotion by Russia of its interests in this country has not yet been complicated to the extent that it happened, for example, in Ukraine. And this is a paradoxical fact that certainly deserves special attention.
Strengthening Russia's position in the Kyrgyz direction will, of course, be confronted with opposition from world power centers, primarily the United States and China. Obviously, the Americans will be extremely reluctant to part with the airbase at the Manas airport, and will certainly try to bargain with the Kyrgyz leadership for some concessions. China will by all means prevent the reduction or even termination of re-export of its goods by Kyrgyzstan in connection with its entry into Eurasian integration associations.
The political situation in Kyrgyzstan, despite its substantial stabilization, will continue to remain tense by definition: this is a feature of the republic throughout all the years of its independence.
Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the Eurasian community and the closest rapprochement with Russia, including the political one, can transfer the Kyrgyz economy to a fundamentally different basis and change for the better not only the standard of living of its inhabitants, but also the image of this country in the world and its place in global division of labor. Once again, we note that Kyrgyzstan, with its stunning unique nature, could well claim to be an all-union health resort for citizens of the Eurasian Union being created, and so far independent Kyrgyzstan has been promoted as a major tourist center only as part of a ridiculous festival with the absurd name “Kyrgyzstan - the birthplace of Santa Claus ", held by the authorities of the country in 2008 year. In addition to tourism, Kyrgyzstan could offer its neighbors in the Eurasian Union the use of its enormous labor resources, but not on a migration basis, but on the basis of their implementation within the republic itself. Residents of Kyrgyzstan, mostly literate and hardworking people who are looking for opportunities to earn money in the Russian Federation and resell Chinese junk, could find themselves in the numerous light industry enterprises that have yet to be created and who would be able to compete with the Chinese clothing monopoly.
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