Another one bites the dust

   We've all been getting a really good geography lesson in central Asia since the century started and the recent developments in Kyrgyzstan reveal yet another peal from the peasants squeezed in the middle.
   Here's the latest news, thanks to James Kirchick:
     "Over the past week in Kyrgyzstan, riots between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the country's south have left nearly 200 people dead. Some 100,000 Uzbeks have poured into neighboring Uzbekistan. Dysentery has reportedly broken out in refugee camps along the border, which the Uzbek government closed despite a request from the United Nations to keep it open. And on Friday, Kyrgyzstan's interim President Roza Otunbayeva announced that her government had lost control over the southern half of the country.
   Some are reporting that Ms. Otunbayeva initially asked for assistance—including rubber bullets—from the United States and was denied. What's certain is that she sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev requesting immediate military intervention. Yet that support is unlikely to come as long as Russia and the central Asian dictatorships surrounding Kyrgyzstan continue to benefit from the country's instability."
   Indeed. It seems the Russians are so at ease with the U.S. being bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the Kremlin can sit back and watch Kyrgyz' kill themselves, gun-down Georgians at will and repeatedly pimp-slap the Ukrainians and nobody's pitching a fit.
   Also included in Kirchick's report: "Russia and China have called for a quick end to the unrest, which has raised concerns about the stability of a country that hosts U.S. and Russian military bases."
  I can see China being concerned, but I'm thinking the only thing the Russians are getting up for is another bottle of vodka.
  Editor's note: On June 21, Belarus felt the backhand of the great Eastern Extortionists, as Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom will begin to cut supplies to its hapless neighbor. Ypa!