Hopefully not a sign of what's to come: Vandals have destroyed 30-odd headstones at a Russian Orthodox cemetery near Kyrgyzstan's Lake Issyk-Kul, Interfax reports.
The Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots announced the desecration on August 10.
"Such provocations are aimed at destabilizing the situation in the republic and they set as their goal moral pressure on the Russian-speaking part of our society," Council officials stressed.
The Russian Embassy has sent a note of protest to the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry over the incident. Ambassador Valentin Vlasov says 30 graves were desecrated and described the action as "not characteristic of the wise Kyrgyzstani people."
The Council has published photos.
Let's hope the incident was isolated and random. Moscow will be watching carefully. Bishkek-based analysts and western diplomats say Moscow, which refrained from getting involved in June's ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, will not sit passively if ethnic Russians become a target.
David Trilling is Eurasianet’s managing editor.
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