Kyrgyz Media Reaction on Shooting of Russian Officer Based

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BISHKEK 000422 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/PPD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV KPAO KG SUBJECT: Kyrgyz Media Reaction on Shooting of Russian Officer Based in Kant BISHKEK 00000422 001.2 OF 002 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: On Sunday, April 20th, there was an altercation between Russian servicemen and Kyrgyz traffic police outside Bishkek. As a result, Kyrgyz traffic police shot a Russian officer based at the Russian air base in Kant, who was severely injured, losing a rib and his spleen. While the Kyrgyz and Russians pointed fingers at each other, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior Affairs urged the media not to "politicize" the incident. The plea apparently succeeded; there were few comments in the press and little public outrage. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) On Sunday, April 20th, at approximately 2:00 am local time, there was an altercation between Russian servicemen and Kyrgyz traffic police outside Bishkek. The shooting of the Russian officer was first reported in Kyrgyzstan by Rosbalt, a Russian Information Agency, which was quick to blame the Kyrgyz traffic police, alleging that the Kyrgyz fired at the Russian officers without provocation. The Rosbalt report was picked up and rerun by Kyrgyz electronic news outlets, AkiPress and 24.kg. ¶3. (U) Independent Kyrgyz-language "Radio Azattyk" (the local affiliate of RFE/RL) gave a different account of the incident: "According to the Interior Ministry, a car carrying Russian servicemen did not obey an order from traffic policemen to stop and continued to travel. The policemen had to pursue the vehicle and opened fire when the Russian servicemen resisted. [The Kyrgyz policemen] first fired a warning shot into the air, then shot to kill. As a result, one of the three servicemen was injured." ¶4. (U) On April 22nd, the opposition Kyrgyz-language newspaper "De Facto" lead with a front-page article entitled, "Drunk Russian Officer Shot by Kyrgyz Traffic Police," which criticized the Russians: "They should drink inside the base and do whatever they want to inside the base. Once outside the base, representatives of a foreign military force must follow Kyrgyz laws." The Former Secretary of the Security Council Miroslav Niazov commented: "Russia SIPDIS should work together to investigate the case, and Kyrgyz side must provide people with full facts." The De Facto article was followed by another opposition Kyrgyz-language newspaper, "Agym," which editorialized: "We don't want Russian servicemen to forget that they are in the land of Kyrgyzstan." ¶5. (U) Independent, pro-Russian "Belyi Parohod" compared the Russian and Kyrgyz versions of the incident and concluded: "The incident is possibly an attempt by a third party to damage Kyrgyz-Russian relations. Only a third power present in Kyrgyzstan with observer status and that is not interested in the Russian presence here may benefit from destabilization of mutually beneficial, both for Russia and our country, bilateral relations - that is what a number of pro-Russian political analysts think." ¶6. (U) The most popular online discussion forum, "Diesel," was open briefly for discussion of the incident. As often happens with politically-sensitive issues, the discussion was quickly closed - 27 hours after it began. The moderator explained: "This topic is closed until the moment of agreement between 'ours' and yours' [i.e. between Kyrgyz and Russians]." ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: Time and again, when there are negative incidents involving Russians, they receive scant attention in the local press and spontaneous online discussion, however benign, is quickly suppressed. "Diesel" forum quickly closed discussions on the topic of the 1916 uprising (which took the lives of at least 100,000 ethnic Kyrgyz) and when a car driven by a Russian diplomat fatally killed a passerby in December 2007. The limited press coverage of the recent incident is yet another example of the double standard in media coverage of U.S. versus Russian incidents in Kyrgyzstan. It is also interesting to note that three days after the shooting of the Russian officer, local press picked up a story from the Air Force Times about servicemen at the U.S. Base at Manas being BISHKEK 00000422 002.2 OF 002 penalized for excessive consumption of alcohol. Though it was strictly factual and based on the Air Force's own reporting, it was widely disseminated in the local press. Yovanovitch