Russian influence in Kyrgyzstan rising despite local consternation
Voice of America
FILE - Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a welcome ceremony prior to their talks in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 12, 2023. FILE - Kyrgyz male labor migrants wait to leave to work in Russia at the office of a company organizing passenger transportation to Russia in Bishkek, Oct. 17, 2023. A secondary school in Bishkek which is financed by Russian Gasprom, April 24, 2024. The school is one of the elitist educational institutions in Kyrgyzstan.
Talas, a dusty town in northwestern Kyrgyzstan, is not accustomed to foreign dignitaries. Tourists occasionally stop there, but even officials from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, rarely visit this remote part of the country.
A visitor walks along on a beach equipped with anti-landing barricades, with the Chinese city of Xiamen seen in the background, in the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, in Kinmen on May 17, 2024. Tourists pose for photos as they visit a scenic spot on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in Fujian province on May 18, 2024.
Monica Johnston, a burn and wound care nurse from the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, with the Palestinian American Medical Association, monitors a patient who sustained major burns on May 8, 2024, in Khan Younis, Gaza. Dr. Ammar Ghanem of Detroit, volunteering with the Syrian American Medical Society, second from right, is pictured May 7, 2024, in Khan Younis, Gaza, with other doctors at the European General Hospital, where they had been since early May.
FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2014, photo, Turkish riot police use water cannons and tear gas to disperse people protesting against Turkey's policy in Syria, in Diyarbakir, Turkey. FILE - Youths set fire to barricades within sight of Turkish army tanks stationed in Diyarbakir, hours after violent protests by Kurds over the Islamic State group's advance on Kobani, Syria, Oct. 8, 2014.