Kyrgyzstan's incumbent President Askar Akayev is ready to resign before the end of his term if he is given the respective guarantees and the procedure fully complies with the country's legislation. "I am a realist, and one has to count with reality," he said.
Mr. Akayev said he would negotiate with the only legitimate leader that remains in Kyrgyzstan, that is Omurbek Tekebayev, the speaker of the new parliament, he said.
This will hardly disconcert the Bakiyev government, which insists that the constitutional complication should be resolved as soon as possible (the country's constitution does not provide for a situation when the president "disappears").
In any case the main players on Kyrgyzstan's political field - its neighbors Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the political heavyweights protecting their interests in the region -- China, Russia and the USA - have in fact begun cooperating with the new authorities without waiting for it to be constitutionally framed.
The divorce between the president and the already former opposition will most probably be void of any excesses. Well-informed sources in the Kyrgyz capital close to the government say that the incumbent authorities will not toughen their demands towards Mr. Akayev. "The authorities will definitely demand that Mr. Akayev should resign voluntarily. As to possible persecution, it may be initiated only by private persons," the sources believe.
But the key question is whether the Bakiyev government will be able to stabilize the situation in the republic. It should not be forgotten that the opposition has come to power in the wave of electorate protests that made some serious demands to president Akayev and his inner circle.
Political expert Muratbek Imanaliyev, leader of one of the opposition movements, the New Course, says that it cannot be ruled out that opposition to Bakiyev's government will emerge. To prevent this, Mr. Bakiyev will have to solve three tasks fairly quickly.
The first one lies in the social and economic sphere. First of all, he needs to stop the economy from further misbalancing. Next to stop business and capital flight from the republic. And, finally, to prevent a new wave of Russian-speaking population's emigration. This is a very sensitive problem for Kyrgyzstan, and not a purely economic one.
The second task concerns stability and security in the republic. Mr. Imanaliyev believes that in this respect the authorities will have to establish the center's control over provinces and, first of all, launch interaction between the central authorities and the south of the republic.
The third task is the country's foreign policy. The new leaders should make a statement as soon as possible, making clear what they intend to do with the agreements they have inherited and what their foreign-policy priorities are, Mr. Imanaliyev says. This statement will provide guidelines for such large countries as Russia, the USA and China, as well as for the closest neighbors.
If the new authorities cope with this triune task, the republic will avoid obvious social commotions.
