At the end of last month, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that Russia simply didn’t have enough money to finance the project any more. MPs said that they had little choice but to cancel the deal with Russia so that a search for a new investor could begin in earnest.
Dastan Bekeshev, considered a liberal progressive MP, told a Conway Bulletin correspondent that it would be hard to find a new investor at the moment.
“Kyrgyzstan will seek investors, but I am sceptical to this idea because this is an issue of geopolitics and not simply investment from foreign countries,” he said.
The cancellation of the Kambar- Ata-1 project, signed between Kyrgyzstan and Russia in 2008, is a major blow to Kyrgyzstan and one of the biggest casualties of the deepening economic malaise. And, as Mr Bekeshev said, in the current economic climate, it may be difficult for Kyrgyzstan to attract another investor.
China, the most obvious substi- tute, is trying to deal with its own economic slowdown.
Russia’s withdrawal from the Kambar-Ata-1 hydropower project also shows that Russian influence in Central Asia is waning as its economic power dips.
On the streets of Bishkek, opinion was divided on the impact of Russia’s withdrawal from the project.
Aliaskar, 23, said that Russia had promised and failed to build many infrastructure projects in Kyrgyzstan.
“They said they would build gas pipelines and improve infrastructure under the Eurasian economic union, but all these things would be implemented in 50 years from now,” he said.
But Alisher, 24, said the scuppered hydropower project deal wouldn’t damage relations between Kyrgyzstan and Russia. “There are other spheres in the Kyrgyz economy where Russia has positively contributed like importing Russian gas, forgiving debt, providing security in the region and other pillars,” he said.
