“6th Day, 11pm” by Teo Kaye. Many more photos from the recent protests can be found at his Flickr stream.

Kyrgyz opposition groups have been holding massive anti-government protests in the capital Bishkek for the past week, calling for constitutional changes and the resignation of the president. With the parliament having passed a new constitution that would reduce the powers of the president, tensions appear to be set to diminish.

Edil Baisalov, one of the protest leaders, is one of the many who have spent all week camped outside the parliament building. His livejournal (RUS) is frequently updated with news, his own opinions, and occasionally some satisfied self-reflection:

I want to go down in the history of the blogging movement. No, seriously: First blogger from a Yurt!

At the neweurasia Kyrgyzstan blog, Yulia has a more negative view of the protests. She worries that unthinking protests will turn the country into a banana republic, and isn't impressed that the opposition formed a ‘Constituent Assembly' to rewrite the constitution:

The session started at around midnight. With no quorum and several dozens of deputies boycotting the meeting members of the opposition announced that they sighed a draft of the Constitution, that in their opinion should be adopted in Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, there is hardly any information about any details on the content of the Constitution.

Also at neweurasia, Inga has been talking to some of the demonstrators:

It was also my impression that the protesters were hardly aware what the goals of the opposition leaders, who brought them on the streets, were. I asked one of the women-protesters from Naryn district why she was unhappy about the Constitution and which changes should be implemented. “I don’t want our lands to be sold to foreigners,”-all she was able to answer.

A new blog, Kyrgyz Report, offers ongoing analysis, including an analysis of the clusters of political forces in the country and the roots of the country's political problems. Non-Kyrgyz bloggers are also watching events closely: Sean Roberts has thoughts on the constitutional draft, media coverage within Kyrgyzstan and the changing prospects of compromise. Registan.net also has ongoing coverage, and some fascinating discussions in their comments.

On the TV channel “Imedi” I saw a demonstration in St. Petersburg against the persecution of Georgians. To my delight, I caught sight of my friend Valiko. I am very grateful that, unafraid of the consequences, she took to the streets and made her stand as a citizen. It's in times like this that you learn who is a real person, and who is just an empty shell.

But most of the news is bad. It seems even sport is becoming politicised. The ‘Kremlin Cup' tennis tournament, Sukhumi writes, has just been won by ethnic Georgian Anna Chakvetadze - in the face of a crowd shouting taunts like “Georgians go to Georgia!” (Edit: Irina, in the comments below, says this wasn't the case). And another Georgian sports star has fled Russia:

Yesterday Elena Gedevanishvili returned to Tbilisi. She is a Georgian figure-skater, trained in Moscow, who has won sixth place at the Winter Olympics. Her parents were deported from Russia on the first plane; Elena herself went [first] to Vienna, where she won some big competition…

Sukhumi also recounts an interview on Russian television with Dmitry Rogozin, leader of the right-wing Rodina party and one of the many politicians who link the current Russian-Georgian dispute to an ongoing conflict over the Georgian region of Abkhazia; many residents of Abkhazia are ethnic Russians, and a majority of Russians would like to see Abkhazia either become an independent state, or become incorporated within Russia:

[Rogozin was] asked whether he was “prepared to send Russian soldiers to their deaths, since Georgia will never acquiesce to the loss of Abkhazia, and so war will certainly begin”. To this Rogozin replied that he was prepared not only to send Russian soldiers to their deaths, but to take up a gun and go to seize Abkhazia himself.

Sukhumi also recounts the story of a 13-year-old boy separated from his parents, who were on the first planeload of deported Georgian citizens:

I thought it was only the fascists of the German SS who separated parents and children, shoved them into different railway carriages…

In the comments, Sukhumi is taken to task for being too one-sided. He replies:

Things aren't perfect in Georgia. There is authoritarianism here, but not fascism like in Russia. They aren't evicting Russians from here, you don't hear slogans like “Georgia for the Georgians.”

One reader disputes the level of racism in Russia:

I have lived in St. Petersburg for 14 years now, with a Georgian surname,
and I have never encountered hostility because of my race.

Another reader responds:

I have lived in St. Petersburg for 16 years now, I have a Georgian surname, and I constantly encounter hostility on the grounds of race. You've obviously been lucky.

Yet another suggests:

It all depends on appearance. If you are not obviously from the Caucasus, you're OK.