"Tulip Revolution" In Kyrgyzstan

It's not a proper revolution anymore until it has a marketable name. Not being snide; just noting that peaceful revolutions need a bit of PR. Like stacked Lebanese babes in tight shirts.

Gateway Pundit reports:

A Central Asia expert with the Russian newspaper Vremya Novostei, Arkady Dubnov, said the situation in Kyrgyzstan was irreversible.

"The only question now is when the government will be changed," he told Ekho Mosvky radio, adding that the protests were "another link" in the chain of political change sweeping through the former Soviet Union.

But this revolution isn't entirely peaceful, either. Quoting lightly from StatFor:

In this case, however, the protests have run to violence: Opposition factions in western and southwestern Kyrgyzstan, where there are high populations of ethnic Uzbeks, have taken to storming government buildings, beating policemen and vice versa, as they protest corruption and demand Akayev's resignation.

[T]he opposition is using a tried-and-true tactic: Calling protestors into the streets, betting that government security forces won't put up a serious show of force. This is key to the "velvet" revolution -- to push security forces themselves into giving way or, better yet, siding with the protesters themselves. We are told that in this case, the activists maintain secret contact with government security leaders in order to quietly negotiate the desired outcome.

I prefer breasts to beatings, myself.

Via Instapundit, disappointing reports that Russia just might fight this one.

posted by Ace at 03:47 PM

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