Bishkek: The head of Kyrgyzstan’s new interim government, Roza Otunbayeva, has revealed that her country was broke and said former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev left only USD 80 million in the budget.
Otunbayeva also appealed for urgent international aid for the impoverished country.
“Tomorrow we should pay pensions. This is a really serious problem,” The Guardian quoted Otunbayeva, as saying.
She said that Bakiyev, who was overthrown in a street-led revolution this week, had plundered the economy, installing his sons in key government positions and flogging off strategic state industries for a fraction of their true value.
“We had an absolutely scandalous situation where Kyrgyzstan had become a family-run regime,” she added.
Otunbayeva further hinted that the new government sees Russia as its most important strategic partner, when she said that she had sent her deputy, Almazbek Atambayev, to Moscow to hold talks with Vladimir Putin.
“I had a talk with Putin. He was very keen to learn what was going on in Kyrgyzstan and whether we had control in the south,” she added.
ANI
First Published: Saturday, April 10, 2010, 15:59