According to the Wikipedia free encyclopedia Kyrgyzstan is officially the Kyrgyz Republic, a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and People’s Republic of China to the east. Its capital and largest city is Bishkek.

The nation’s largest ethnic group are the Kyrgyz, a Turkic people, who comprise 69% of the population (2007 estimate). Other ethnic groups include Uzbeks (14.5%) living in the south, and Russians (9.0%) concentrated in the north. Small but noticeable minorities include Tatars (1.9%), Uyghurs (1.1%), Tajiks (1.1%), Kazakhs (0.7%), and Ukrainians (0.5%) and other smaller ethnic minorities (1.7%). Kyrgyzstan has over 80 distinct ethnic groups in the country.

Kyrgyzstan has undergone a pronounced change in its ethnic composition since independence from teh former Soviet Union. The percentage of ethnic Kyrgyz increased, while the percentage of European ethnic groups (Russians, Ukrainians, etc.) as well as Tatars has dropped. Between 1991 and 2002, more than 600,000 people emigrated from Kyrgyzstan and the ethnic minority population declined from 47 to 33 percent.

With hundreds dead and tens of thousands of refugees, ethnic violence has brought chaos to Kyrgyzstan.

A revolution brought a transitional government but it lacks legitimacy and control over substantial parts of the government. At the moment Kyrgyzstan doesn’t even have a parliament.

Why is all this important? Because the U.S. and Russia have national security interest in Kyrgyzstan.

Russia has troops stationed there and are looking to bring Kyrgyzstan into the Russian orbit. The U.S. has had use of an air base to refuel cargo planes heading to Afghanistan.

They probably have a rough road ahead but are not on the brink of collapse as some European news media are reporting..

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“The New York Times,” April 12, 2010, reported that jet fuel sales to the Manas Air Base outside Bishkek, the capital in Kyrgyzstan, was an issue in the recent revolt and was the same the last time the people over threw the government in 2005. There are accusations that U. S. paid the former ruling family extra on Pentagon contracts for aviation fuel. However, something much sinister may be involved this time if Russia was involved in the revolt.

Surprisingly, Kyrgyzstan has a Russian military base where Russia flew in extra troops during the revolt.

The Kyrgyzstan air base is critical to supplying fuel, troops and equipment to Afghanistan. The air base is the only transit spot in Central Asia for the U.S. in Afghanistan.

The U.S. resumed normal flights at Manas for now after being halted for a couple of days.

After a former communist and close ally of Russia won elections in Ukraine, then there is the occupation of parts of Georgia, it may be that Russia is trying to solidify its influence in the former Soviet republics.

Kyrgyzstan is in our national security interest but it remains to be seen what role Russia will play in the new government.

More important, do we have the leadership and experience in Washington, D.C., to not screw this up.

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