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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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Kyrgyzstan enters the line of the other ex-communist and ex-soviet republics of Central Asia. A powerful president orchestrating sham elections, when the number of seats for the ruling party is already known in advance; a powerless opposition tolerated as far as it renounces its principle goal of competing for power; marginalized intellectuals getting paid for defending those in power from their own people; and careless foreign public opinion that thinks more in terms of economic benefits than in human rights and freedoms. When the western reaction finally comes right on, it indicates more at a disinterest with the country.

For most of the 1990s Kyrgyzstan was singled out from its immediate neighborhood as a country with exceptionally good chances of getting out of the ex-communist economic and political legacies. The state worked hard at privatizing most of the state-owned companies; western financial advisers were welcomed guests in the country; the political opposition was tolerated, and foreign-financed non-governmental organizations flourished. When the reformer-minded president Askar Akaev reneged on its own line of openness, the civil society was strong enough to push him out of office in 2005. Since then, however, those who came to power to 'fix' the situation went even further in political authoritarianism and economic and social seal-off from the foreign world. After a brief play with parliamentarism in 2006, the current government is able now to arrange elections the same way as the leaders in any other ex-Soviet Central Asian state. Kyrgyzstan is no more an exception within the neighborhood.

What is of interest here is the western reaction. All western countries, using particularly strong wording, condemn the downgrade of political and economic freedom in the country. The irony in this fact is that the ruling oligarchy, in fact most people with at least some power and influence in the public life in Kyrgyzstan, at some point in the past maintained some connections with the western-sponsored local non-governmental organizations. The United States is also one of the major donators to the government; the country provides key logistical support for the military air traffic to and from Afghanistan. In this sense, by attacking the nature of the ruling oligarchy, the West cuts some of its positions in Central Asia, and makes the military operations in Afghanistan more difficult.

Unless it's a political miscalculation, something we should doubt when it comes to relations with countries in highly sensitive areas of the world, the West is trying to withdraw entirely from the region, and the position vis-à-vis Kyrgyzstan is nothing more than a part of a larger strategy of disinterest in Central Asia. Is there a deal with Russia or with China, or both? Or is it a withdrawal from a region considered defenseless with the growing influence of these two Asian giants? Nonetheless, the questions over the causes of the fact don't change the nature of the fact itself. Kyrgyzstan is no longer an exception in Central Asia.

Kyrgyzstan profile:

• Area: 198,500 sq km.
• Population: 5.2 million (July 2007 est.).
• Population growth rate: 1.354% (2007 est.).
• Net migration rate: -2.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.).
• Life expectancy at birth: 68.81 years.
• Ethnic groups: Kyrgyz 64.9%, Uzbek 13.8%, Russian 12.5% (1999 census).
• GDP per capita (PPP): $2,100 (2006 est.).
• Population below poverty line: 40% (2004 est.).
• Economic aid (recipient): $268.5 million from the US (2005).
• Internet users: 298,100 (2006).

(Sources: CIA - The World Factbook 2007; Reuters)

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Kyrgyzstan.