Triple Restaurant Fire in Kyrgyzstan’s Capital: Bizness? Nationalism? Pork Hate?
Simultaneous nighttime fires struck three restaurants in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, this week, all of them specializing in Russian or Ukrainian cuisine. While investigators poke around in the debris, locals are left scratching their heads, with some worried about a violent turf war, some warning of anti-Slavic nationalism, and others just wondering whether they’ll still be able to enjoy their favorite cured pig fat and pepper-infused vodka.
All three fires began between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. on March 7, the second day of a three-day weekend in honor of International Women’s Day, a state holiday. So far, one person has been reported injured.
The worst damaged, according to local press, was the biggest of the three restaurants, Pechki-Lavochki, which lost its entire outdoor terrace to the blaze, complete with tables and chairs. Fire inspector Ulan Rysaliev told reporters that a security camera had recorded trespassers nearby and an arson probe is underway.
Investigators likewise suspect foul play at Zaporozhskaya Sech, a Ukrainian restaurant with some of the finest fatback this side of the Black Sea. There, a 23-year-old security guard sustained bad burns after kicking aside a Molotov cocktail hurled into a bathroom window. Several media reports said the assailants tried to set fire to the restaurant from the outside as well, leaving behind an empty five-liter gas canister, but the building’s fire-resistant coating thwarted the attempt.
The third fire damaged the kitchen at Glavpivtrest, a Soviet-themed pub, after one or more of its microwave ovens caught fire.
All that the three restaurants seem to have in common is the timing of the fires and their Slavic cuisine. Some local media have pointed out that, in all three cases, the owners and much of the staff are non-Kyrgyz.
“Someone wanted to give us a scare, that’s clear as day,” News-Asia.ru quoted an employee of Pechki-Lavochki as saying. “We’re considering three versions of what happened: a criminal turf war, an attempt to intimidate our owner, and a version involving the ethnic issue.” (The report identified the restaurant’s owner as a major city developer.)
“We’ve never had conflicts with our competitors and we haven’t gotten any threats from the criminal world,” a manager at Zaporozhskaya Sech was quoted as saying. “Maybe this was a provocation. But the law-enforcement agencies will have to figure out its aim.”
Alexander Ivanov, head of a group advocating for the rights of the country’s Russian minority, pinned the attacks squarely on a “criminal group that’s trying to push Slavs out of the country. … Now these criminals have aimed their efforts against the businesses of Russian speakers,” he told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. He linked the attacks to last year’s “pogroms at Orthodox Christian churches and cemeteries, followed by anti-Russian graffiti.”
Investigators may or may not come up with answers. (One hypothesis that hasn’t gotten much play so far is that the amateurish attacks -- reminiscent of a failed arson attempt at a city synagogue last fall -- were a protest by young Muslim zealots opposed to the dissipation of pork eating and vodka drinking.) Meanwhile, Bishkek residents will probably split into camps: those who suspect a business beef; those who worry about nationalism; and those who just want an uninterrupted supply of salo and moonshine.
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