The two Žaparovs of Biškek

President Sadyr appoints his namesake Alybek as premier. Power remains in the hands of the post-Soviet oligarchy. State monopoly of raw materials returns. Canadian group reacquires gold mine in Kumtor. Afghan students return to the country.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Kyrgyzstan Parliament has approved the composition of the new government. On October 15, the House unanimously confirmed the names proposed by President Sadyr Zaparov. The Prime Minister will be Alybek Zaparov (see photo), who is not related to the Head of State, and this is already surprising news for a Central Asian country.

The first statement of the new prime minister is an appeal with a clear populist flavor: "The rich will have to pay more taxes." The 57-year-old economist Alybek Zaparov is well known to the Kyrgyz; he has been a member of the ruling elite since the 1990s and has held various governmental positions. The new premier has also been the protagonist of some rather sensational initiatives, such as when as deputy prime minister of Kurmanbek Bakiev's government he proposed to give passports to all the nation's goats.

Now Žaparov "junior" proposes to implement an emergency economy program, with a state monopoly on energy and mining sources and digital services, subjecting them to a strict fiscal regime.

The economic plan has been criticized in Parliament by a young deputy, Dastan Bekešev, who while not formally opposing it has accused the new government of being too closely tied to the world of the oligarchs. He recommended to the new ministers "not to go to restaurants with people convicted of corruption": a reference to a recent scandal linked to the video of a wedding of a high official, in which was present the former director of Customs Raimbek Matraimov, arrested for corruption and then released after paying the Treasury a ridiculous part of the funds he embezzled.

The new government of the "two Žaparovs" is the result of last April's constitutional amendments, which effectively transformed the parliamentary republic into a presidential one, leaving the head of state in full control of the government. For some local human rights activists, this has meant the establishment of an authoritarian regime.

The charges of connivance with the economic powers are largely linked to the recent negotiations conducted by Alybek Žaparov with the Canadian company Centerra Gold Inc., the current usufructuary of the gold mine in Kumtor, and which would now be willing to sell it to the government in exchange for the exit of Kyrgyz people from the same company. The day after the agreements reached in Switzerland with the Canadians, Zaparov was appointed head of the government, announcing that "from now on we will be the masters of our gold."

The authorities have not disclosed the contents of the agreement with Centerra, although the Zaparovs claim that there will be no financial disadvantages for Kyrgyzstan, as confirmed by the director of the Kumtor mine, Tengiz Bolturuk, a key figure in the negotiations. The latter let slip that "the gain for us will be huge, although I cannot tell you how much." 

Bolturuk claims that the government has "grandiose plans and a team ready to implement them". The value of Kyrgyz shares in Centerra would still exceed billion, and the company controls other mines in Canada, Turkey and Mongolia, whose profits are also important to Kyrgyz. The government had previously stated that Centerra had to pay Biškek .5 billion in ecological taxes and penalties.

Disputes between Kyrgyzstan and the Canadians will therefore be resolved by agreements, avoiding the courts, and Sadyr Žaparov triumphantly declared that "there is a long line of customers waiting for our gold, no one can stop us."

In the meantime, Kyrgyzstan has decided to allow students from its universities from Afghanistan to enter the country: they had been stranded after the Taliban took Kabul. About 200 male and female students will be able to continue their studies, according to the exchange program active since 2012. By the end of the year, more than 500 Afghan students will be in Biškek, partly financed by the United States, as President Zaparov had promised when speaking at the UN last September.