Kyrgyzstan: Moscow Slams Bakiyev Officials for Trafficking Drugs

Nikolai Bordyuzha has said what we’ve all been thinking.

The chief of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the region’s dithering, would-be NATO, has said that members of deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s court were trafficking narcotics through southern Kyrgyzstan. That part of the country was Bakiyev’s home base and, after his bloody ouster last spring, the epicenter of ethnic violence that left hundreds dead and thousands wounded.

"A year ago, before the events in Kirgizia, some security forces, controlled by President Bakiyev among others, controlled drug traffic through the south of Kirgizia," Bordyuzha, referring to the country by its Soviet-era moniker, said in comments carried by RIA Novosti on February 21.

Whether Bakiyev was complicit, or, as many suspect, profiting directly from the drug trade, Bordyuzha didn’t elaborate. But he made a comment about Kyrgyzstan’s current security forces, or “siloviki” -- a term referring collectively to agencies with the legitimate right to use force, including police, army, intelligence services and others -- that left journalists guessing about his meaning: 

"Over the last month, several caravans of drugs have been intercepted and, moreover, this transfer was made possible by security forces," he said, adding that the new Kyrgyz authorities could use some help in the fight against drugs.

Was Bordyuzha referring to the transfer of troops that stopped the drug shipments? Or was he suggesting, as interpreted by Lenta.ru, that some members of the security forces continue to smuggle drugs?

In any case, Moscow has genuine reasons to worry. According to Russian media reports, 30,000 Russians die every year from heroin, 90 percent of which comes from from Afghanistan. Most of that transits Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 

Bishkek’s newly reconstituted Drug Control Agency (disbanded by Bakiyev in October 2009) could use some teeth; it’s even rumored to lack the authority to interdict shipments passing over Kyrgyzstan’s borders. Perhaps that’s why the agency’s superiors have refused interview requests for the past five months -- loath to show how impotent and vulnerable they still are?

Even so, Bordyuzha’s statements, which should be read as Moscow’s official position, raise a few questions. 

How long has he known about the Bakiyev connection and why has he waited until now to talk about it? And, because almost all Afghan heroin transiting Kyrgyzstan must first pass through Tajikistan, what does he have up his sleeve for Dushanbe?