Fuel Deal Highlights Kyrgyz Reliance on Russia

Residents of Kyrgyzstan have welcomed a fall in petrol prices which came after Russia agreed to lift the duty payable on fuel. 

Last year, Moscow set a higher rate on fuel exports to Kyrgyzstan as part of new regulations for its customs union with Kazakstan and Belarus, which effectively created new terms of trade with non-members.

The coalition government formed after an autumn parliamentary election in Kyrgyzstan managed to persuade Moscow to drop the fuel duty, and many people praise it for doing so at a time when the Central Asian state is going through hard times. (See Kyrgyz Petrol Price Cuts Fail to Curb Inflation.)

Professor Ayilchi Sarybaev, an economist, argues that the Russian concession reflects the strength of its relationship with Kyrgyzstan. 

“We have to see it as good will on their part,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’ve become dependent on them.”

Some residents of Bishkek interviewed by IWPR were less favourably disposed, arguing that the Kyrgyz government should not have been quite so lavish in its expressions of gratitude to Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin. 

The audio programme, in Russian and Kyrgyz, went out on national radio stations in Kyrgyzstan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.