Minus 20 is too cold for Middle Asia, and frosts for a whole month are unusual.
"But you have 'hot' elections," you tell Bishkek residents. They either get irritated or start telling you about their candidates.
The election campaign seems really hot. It started with pickets in support of former diplomats denied registration and is ending with highways blocked in the Issyk-Kul and Naryn regions.
The "temperature" is increased by the foreign policy context - some observers believe Kyrgyzstan is the next country of "velvet revolution" after Georgia and Ukraine.
However, the "velvet" scenario in Kyrgyzstan looks rather rough. At first, the opposition could not choose the color. The lemon color, under which an opposition leader delivered a speech, should have symbolized the color of first mountain tulips, but the residents associated it with yellow - the color of infidelity and lemons - sour fruit among the Middle Asian abundance.
Then another leader led his supporters under a rose banner. Together, these colors give orange, but pale.
This is a successful symbol of the present Kyrgyz opposition which looks as a pale analogue of supporters of "orange" who won in Kiev. The Kyrgyz oppositionists have no leader, and they cannot fill the central square Ala-Too with their supporters. The square is capable of admitting thousands, while even the biggest opposition rallies gather only several hundreds of people.
The Kyrgyz opposition acknowledges that the experience of "velvet revolutions" may be useful for them. In particular, just as Georgian and Ukrainian politicians, they deny their dependence on external political subjects.
"Expecting serious influence of say Freedom House is unreal. I attended their meetings, and there were always the same people there. They won't be able tospread their influence," believes a moderate Kyrgyz politician.
The idea that a legitimate change of power in post-Soviet countries is useful by itself, as an element of teaching democracy, which is popular among the western and some Russian political scientists, is not alien to the opposition circles.
"The single purpose of the opposition is civilized power shift and the establishment of a tradition of power rotation," said one of the opposition leaders.
Another aspect of the rhetoric of velvet revolutions is the statement on the ballot-box stuffing. If a month ago oppositionists who spoke about the possibility of violations said that "in any country including the US certain violations were possible and we would follow this attentively and react to violations", today the moods have changed.
A man wearing an orange scarf kept asking Chairman of the Central Election Commission Sulaiman Imanbayev during his meeting with international observers and journalists "what should be done if the data of election commissions and the Shailoo state automatic system did not coincide". Mr. Imanbayev had to explain why it was hardly possible.
Indeed, Kyrgyzstan's legislation gives an almost ideal possibility for control over elections and the counting of votes by candidates and international observers.
Almost all aspects have been taken into account - from the fingerprinting of voters to prevent second voting and transparent ballot-boxes to allow photographing and shooting of the process of elections and counting of votes. Nevertheless, this question is raised again and again.
The analogies with velvet revolutions appearing in Kyrgyz political life do not seem to be its essence. The real life of the country and its cultural peculiarities have more influence on politics.
Deputies' supporters have blocked the roads. They are concerned about practical aspects and solution of local but vital problems.
"Each deputy can take out 150-200 people of his folks. This form of political activity can seriously destabilize the situation," a local expert said. This is confirmed by the fact that protests caused sharp reaction of the Kyrgyz leadership.
"Any unrests undermine the investment attractiveness of the country and cause the outflow of investors or their concern," said Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev.
"I would like to ask the candidates to be patriots of their country, fight honestly and do not blame authorities for everything. The inflow of investments in the country directly depends on this," Mr. Tanayev stressed.
Tomorrow parliamentary elections will be held in Kyrgyzstan. Only hours left to think it over and make a choice. Any propaganda is prohibited today, therefore, all RIA Novosti's interlocutors asked not to give their names.
We hope that after the elections the political atmosphere in Kyrgyzstan will grow warmer.
