Immediately after it became known that Daniyar Usenov assumed Igor Chudinov’s former post, members of the Diesel internet forum began actively discussing the country’s new second-in-command. There were many comments, most of them negative. The new appointment was not a popular one.

Here are some sample responses [ru]:

Alx.: He reminds me of that character from [comedy film] The 12 Chairs played by Savelii Kramarov. Anything he tries his hand at, he fails.

Havez: Whoever said earlier that he has a “season pass” for the job is right. It’s sad that we’re in for yet another scam of the century. I just wonder what it will be.

XWalker [ru]: It seems like developed capitalism is a ways away… Onward to the past!

Queer [ru]: Now they’re definitely going to litter Friendship Park with cottages. Not only that, they’re probably going to start building apartment buildings in the middle of Dzerzhinka.

So far, Diesel is one of the few places where the new appointment is being discussed. Most bloggers have kept silent. Perhaps, they’re still digesting all the information that has come out in the past two days, of which there has been plenty.

Morrire, the prominent Kyrgyz blogger on LiveJournal is one of the few who have commented on Usenov’s appointment as PM. She writes laconically, but succinctly [ru]:

I’m nauseous, simply nauseous.

Why such strong antipathy towards Daniyar Usenov? There are many answers. For example, today one of my blogger friends joked that “we’ll probably start playing the lottery again soon,” referring to the unpopular lotteries Usenov organized during his reign as mayor of Bishkek. Nariman Tiuleev, who took the mayor seat after Usenov, accomplished more in one year than the latter did in two.

Also posted on neweurasia.net, translated by Andrey

There is a confusion among media, both local and foreign, that candidates Nazaraliev and Atambaev have withdrawn their candidacies. However, both Nazaraliev and Atambaev have several times stated that according to the law on elections, they cant withdraw their candidacies during the election day. They are just considering this election corrupt, and want it to be reheld.

There's video, too:

That's Omurbek Tekebaev, calling the Kyrgyz government criminal and declaring “war” on current president Kurmabnek Bakiev. He has good reason to think so—in 2006 he was basically framed at the Bishkek airport.

There is a lot of internet chatter about supposed fraud.

Blive.kg, one of the video servers in Kyrgyz internet domain, has several videos showing the violations of election norms, including opening of polling stations before arrival of observers, ballot stuffingand carousel voting. As Blive is not accessible outside of Kyrgyzstan, I downloaded ‘norms violations videos’ from there and uploaded in YouTube. But the problem is that one cannot really prove that all these movies were taken during the 2009 presidential elections.

There are also videos of so-called “carousel-voting,” where groups go to different polling stations using different sets of IDs, and election observers arriving on site to find ballots already in the ballot box.

Topchubek Turgunaliev, an opposition politician who has spent a lot of time fighting electoral fraud, has alleged that there are large numbers of dead people on the voter rolls. Even though he no longer wants to be considered for President, former Prime Minister Almazbek Atambaev has lead much of the charge against the elections. A former Prime Minister, he accused officials of election fraud and announced he was quitting the race shortly after learning that one of his local campaign managers had been detained. He's also alleged that an additional 20-30 “opposition members” have been arrested in Issyk-Kul.

Kurmanbek Bakiev, however, seems to have squeaked through, though maybe not with the reported 67% margin. The New York Times ran a depressing story today about how the U.S. goal is to look the other way, as they're too excited about getting Manas back to rock to boat too much on those pesky human rights abuses.

Obviously we don't know for certain that there was specifically voter fraud, in part because most of the observers seemed to have given up and left early (their report will be interesting). We do know, however, there was widespread intimidation beforehand, and there are certainly indications that some forms of voter fraud were widespread and not just limited to somewhere like Bishkek. It's still early, and it's just turning morning in Kyrgyzstan, so there will probably be a lot more news today. A good place to keep up is the #kyrgyzelections tag on Twitter. It doesn't garner the same amount of attention as Iran or Michael Jackson, but it's a good source for news.

This is now the second post-Soviet ally whose abuses the U.S. has remained officially silent about in the last few months (the other, obviously, is Georgia). I'm no bleeding heart, but it is interesting that, as much as the U.S. makes hay about human rights and vote fraud when it suits a simplistic good versus evil narrative, it also prefers to look away when its friends behave even kind of similarly. The U.S. doesn't have to walk on egg shells, it just needs to point out that it's not comfortable or happy with these kinds of things. Baby steps.

Update: The OSCE has officially said the Kyrgyz election “failed to meet key OSCE commitments, despite some positive elements.” Before the elections, OSCE observers saw “instances of obstruction of opposition campaign events as well as pressure and intimidation of opposition supporters.” Then, on election day, there were “many problems and irregularities, including ballot box stuffing, inaccuracies in the voter lists, and multiple voting.” But hey, at least they had multiple candidates!

The representatives of the Kyrgyz and the Russian Ministries of Defence are exploring the question of the opening of the anti-terrorist centre at one of the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan to reinforce the anti-terrorist activity. We could hold joint anti-terrorist trainings of the Kyrgyz and Russian military, Kurmanbek Bakiev said.

In the beginning of July the delegation of the Russian government with the Russian vice-premier Igor Sechin visited Kyrgyzstan. As it was found out later, the Russian delegation discussed the possibility of the extension of the Russian military forces in Kyrgyzstan and the possible opening of the second Russian military base at the south region of Kyrgyzstan during the private talks.

The President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev neither confirmed nor denied the information that Russia supposedly had the negotiations to Kyrgyzstan to set up the second military base for the CSTO forces.

Such agreement can't be announced in advance. We can't neither confirm nor deny, Medvedev told.

The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erhzan Ashikbaev announced the position of Kazakhstan. He told, that Kazakhstan considered the possibility of the opening of the Russian military base the business matter between two countries and greeted any steps to improve the stability and safety of the region.

William Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs told that such decision was obviously the sovereign right of the government of Kyrgyzstan.

Our view is that any step that strengthens the sovereignty, independence and security of Kyrgyzstan is a sensible one, Burns said [en] to AP.

But Uzbekistan expressed [ru] the negative opinion about the possible new military bases in the border countries.

Tashkent expresses strong disagreement about the setting up the new foreign military bases in the border countries, the high-ranking Uzbek official told anonymously.

Internet-society of Kyrgyzstan started criticizing of Uzbekistan.

Okey, should we ask for the written permission of Uzbekistan to set up a new base? But what about the closure of the Uzbek borders recently? They did it without any permission. Now we can make them nervous also. We need to open one more military base in Osh city and set up the American transit center in Batken instead of Bishkek, Diesel Forum user Dizelist said [ru].

Why is Tashkent so nervous? If the problem is in the terrorism it is advisably for Tashkent to defend the Ferghana Valley better. Americans always stressed that the American military base has the special mission and it won't get involved to the regional conflicts. But the CSTO base should do this. So, why is Tashkent so nervous?, Diesel Forum user Baker Street asked [ru].

I think this possible base at the southern region of Kyrgyzstan is to manipulate Uzbekistan. The Russians with Tajikistan will control the half of the Ferghana Valley, Diesel Forum user Zeeke suggested [ru].