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| - Kyrgyzstan, whose electoral body on Tuesday cancelled the results of a disputed parliamentary vote, is a small former Soviet republic in Central Asia already weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic. Five things to know: Kyrgyz people say their country of 6.5 million inhabitants would be the size of China if it was rolled out flat thanks to the procession of towering peaks that cut through the republic as part of the Tien Shan and Pamir Alay ranges. Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin and Russian President Vladimir Putin have mountains named after them in the landlocked country, while the highest mountain is called Victory Peak at 7,439 metres (24,406 feet), located on Kyrgyzstan's border with China. While Kyrgyzstan is widely seen as the freest of the ex-Soviet "stans" in Central Asia, it has also seen political volatility in recent times. The Muslim-majority country experienced two revolutions that unseated presidents in 2005 and 2010 followed by ethnic violence that pitted Kyrgyz against minority Uzbeks. The election in 2017 of Sooronbay Jeenbekov led to the first peaceful transfer of power between two elected presidents, but relations between the former leader Almazbek Atambayev and his protege soon turned into a violent power struggle. Their rivalry culminated in 2019 with the violent arrest of Atambayev, who was then sentenced to 11 years in jail over the illegal release of a crime boss. Detained in the security services prison, the former president was freed from prison overnight Monday-Tuesday by opposition demonstrators. Kyrgyzstan has few resources compared to commodity-rich neighbours Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan but is endowed with relatively abundant water in a region where it is scarce. The country has looked to build hydroelectric stations to become a power hub for the region, but such efforts require careful negotiations with countries downstream of its glacial rivers that need the water for farming. Kyrgyzstan's other vital commodity is gold. The giant Kumtor gold mine that the government part owns through its stake in Toronto-listed company Centerra Gold has contributed up to 10 percent of gross domestic product in recent years. According to the World Bank, Kyrgyzstan is one of the most remittance dependent economies in the world, with such money transfers equating to between a quarter and a third of GDP. Russian government data released in 2017 showed some 623,000 Kyrgyz citizens living and working in Russia. Unofficial estimates top one million and Kyrgyz also find work in Kazakhstan, Turkey and the Middle East. The status of Kyrgyzstan's Russia-based migrants has improved somewhat since it joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union bloc in 2015. With some 47,600 cases of infection and more than a thousand deaths, Kyrgyzstan has also been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) foresees a fall of 9.5 percent of Kyrgyzstan's GDP in 2020. Trade with neighbouring China has fallen by half since the start of the year, worsening poverty among the population. bur-kd/jmy/cr/pma
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