Just days after protests began in the northwestern Kyrgyz city of Talas it appears that the opposition has won a stunning victory. If the Twitter pundits (Twitdits?) are to be believed, the popular coup in Bishkek has much broader significance. According to the computer savvy masses, Tulip Revolution II should serve as a model for every other nascent democratization movement from Iran ("that's how you do it #iranianelection" seems to be a common sentiment) to Azerbaijan.

Before everyone gets carried away, let’s take a step back and review. The events in Kyrgyzstan are many things, but a model is not one of them. Here are four reasons why:

1. The Kyrgyz have a strong history of staging effective protests. In 1993, protests brought down former Prime Minister Tursunbek Chyngyshev.  In 2002, protesters forced then President Akayev to begin the process of reforming the country’s constitution. And of course there is the 2005 Tulip Revolution, which current opposition leader Roza Otunbaeva played a key role in organizing. It’s much easier to get a crowd together when people believe they are likely to succeed.

2. Kyrgyzstan lacks the natural resource wealth that allows governments in many other authoritarian or semi-authoritarian states to effectively quell internal dissent. And while I hesitate to use the word “easier” when talking about coups and revolutions in the former Soviet Union, it is clear that the Bakiyev regime was vulnerable because of it.

3. The protesters were backed by a segment of the Kyrgyzstan’s political elite and if reports out of Bishkek are true they were able to quickly co-opt members of the security services. 

4. The Bakiyev government wasn't particularly bright. Deciding to increase utility prices by 200% while publicly flaunting your corruption-based wealth  is a sure way to stir up popular unrest.

-Evan
 
 
Not the Easiest Way to Make a Buck in NYC (RFE/RL)
Mastering a language is only the start to being a good interpreter. In a UN guide for would-be language specialists, the job appears to be equal parts diplomat, rocket scientist, and traffic cop. "A good translator," it reads, "knows techniques for coping with a huge variety of difficult situations, has iron nerves, does not panic, has a sense of style, and can keep up with a rapid speakers."

The Saudi Soul (The Economist)
Saudi Arabia is a land of superlatives. It has the biggest oil reserves in the world, the driest deserts and the holiest cities of Islam, as well as the most stubbornly autocratic of governments and irksomely puritanical people. But the realm that was patched together in the early part of the last century by its first king, Abdel Aziz ibn Saud, with an equally energetic mix of jihad and tribal diplomacy, also ranks as one of the most poorly understood countries. Critics portray the kingdom as an oily heart of Islamic darkness, a wellspring of the fanaticism that threw up Osama bin Laden and his furious ilk. Apologists, swayed as often by the ruling Al Sauds’ courtly manners as by their fat purses, paint it instead as a repository of noble Arab tradition, a bastion of stability in a strategically crucial but hopelessly troubled region.

You Can Never Tell How These Things Will Turn Out (Wealth of Nations)
The backlash against Russia's cops should give strength to Medvedev's liberal supporters, who were already calling for deep reforms of Russia's notoriously corrupt Interior Ministry. Popular resentment against law enforcement had been building for at least a year before the attacks, thanks to a series of scandals including a supermarket shooting spree by a drunken officer; a YouTube appeal by a police major in southern Russia complaining of "pure banditry" among his colleagues; and press revelations of how paramilitary cops regularly blackmail, terrorize, and even kidnap businessmen for profit. A poll just before the bombings showed that 81 percent of Russians consider the police to be "outlaws." The outbursts of indignation since the bombings suggests that people's opinion of the police has now sunk even lower.
 
 
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Transparency International recently released its annual Corruption Perception Index. You can access the full report here and an interactive corruption map here.

The Bottom Five Most Corrupt Countries:

176 (tie). Iraq
176 (tie). Sudan
178. Myanmar
179. Afghanistan
180. Somalia

The Top Five Least Corrupt Countries:

1. New Zealand
2. Denmark
3 (tie). Singapore
3 (tie). Sweden
5. Switzerland

Update: The BBC recently published an extremely interesting article on corruption in Afghanistan. Money quote:

"The Bertelsmann Foundation, one of the sources for the conclusions of Transparency International, said: 'Corruption is endemic to all state functions (police, judiciary) and is seen as a usual form of business transaction; even ministers were involved in land grabs. Corruption is additionally interlinked with the opium business. Thus, bribery is invested on a massive scale to undermine efforts against the drug economy.'"
Read the full article here.
 
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