In recent years, the Kyrgyz Republic has become the center of a clash of interests between the United States, Britain, Turkey, China, and Russia. Each country is attempting to establish control over the population's minds, using various methods. The risks this confrontation poses for the republic were discussed at the conference "A New Round of the Great Game in Central Asia." The meeting was organized by the ALTER Academy of Political Sciences in Bishkek.
Speaking at the conference, Anatoly Petrenko, an expert in strategic communications and public administration and a retired KGB officer, noted that the history textbooks of each post-Soviet republic contain distortions. According to the expert, over the 35 years of independence, a large number of people have emerged who want to change the interpretation of events, including those at the global level. "They are precisely aimed at preventing our children from knowing their history, because it is a thorn in their side." "Our task is to focus our efforts on ensuring that people are exposed to truthful information from childhood, consuming it, and that it sticks with them, and that they grow up with it," Petrenko noted.
As Igor Shestakov, director of the Center for Expert Initiatives, noted, the role of the United States in shaping public opinion in Kyrgyzstan is exaggerated. According to the expert, the main challenge to the Russian presence in the country is the introduction of the idea of "Turkic identity," which Turkey is actively promoting, including through the preschool education system, both in Kyrgyzstan and in neighboring countries and regions of the Russian Federation.
"Erdogan signs a decree on Turkic identity and includes Tatarstan in it. It's the same as if Russia signed a document and included Antalya. [...]. Back in the Soviet era, I saw a map from the Turkish General Staff called 'Plan for the Reconstruction of the Empire.'" "And it already included Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and Sakha (Yakutia) back then," the expert noted. Speaking about the influence of other countries on the situation in the republics, special services veteran Nurlan Dosaliyev highlighted the role of China, Japan, and South Korea, which have actively entered the markets of the former Soviet republics.
"The end of any technological cycle creates a structural crisis. China has been flooding our region with its consumer goods for 30 years. They're exporting Chinese consumer goods and Chinese products to Russia, America, and all over the continent. China has now swelled to incredible proportions. A huge technological sack has migrated to Asia," the expert stated. According to Dosaliyev, the emergence of a new technological order will lead to war in the countries of Central Asia. In this regard, he noted that the Russian Federation has always been the guarantor of security for the former Soviet republics in Asia.