.....Today, about a dozen high-ranking government officials are in control of Kyrgyzstan’s major economic sectors. They are not countered by either the parliament or civil society. They are also no longer afraid of intimidation from the criminal underworld, and are able to significantly influence security and law enforcement structures. Future economic policies concerning the remaining state enterprises are likely to be informally redistributed among this limited group of people. This marks the emergence of a new type of state-crime relationship in Kyrgyzstan, where public figures are responsible for organizing major crimes in the country. Such a state of play has regional implications as well. If Kyrgyzstan’s energy sector further deteriorates, neighboring states will suffer from shortages of water and electricity. Kyrgyzstan is also likely to increasingly serve as a transit zone for drug trafficking, with illegal deals possibly brokered at the top levels of government, bypassing law enforcement agencies. As such, Kyrgyzstan is on track to a situation reminiscent of that in Tajikistan where the bulk of Afghan heroin appears to be smuggled by state actors and institutions.
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