A Gift from Kyrgyzstan: The Peak of Vladimir Putin

On Thursday, February 17, Kyrgyz parliamentarians overwhelmingly voted in support of Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev’s proposal to name a 4,446 m (14,587 ft) peak in the country’s northern Tian Shan range after his counterpart Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In an explanatory note the MPs said it would “cement friendly ties between Kyrgyzstan and Russia.” Peak Putin is located in the Chuy province, Moskovsky raion (district), relatively close to the capital city Bishkek and the border with Kazakhstan.

Atambayev, whose coalition government is widely seen as pro-Russian, visited Moscow and met with Putin during his first trip abroad as head of the Kyrgyz government. The proposal to name a mountain peak after Putin was announced late last year, even before Atambayev’s trip to Moscow in December 2010, raising speculations that perhaps Atambayev was trying to grease the wheels ahead of time. Allegedly, the proposal was initiated by the locals from the Moskovsky raion in order “to immortalize the name of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.” However, when pressed the local administration of the raion was unable to provide any details to support this assertion.

There has been a lot of talk in the press that the Kyrgyz gesture is a well calculated and intentional step in order to placate its northern neighbor. During his trip to Russia last December, Atambayev personally told his Russian counterpart about the proposal to name the peak Putin to which the Russian Prime Minister responded jokingly that he ought to be the first to climb the newly named mountain. According to the Russian government press release Atambayev said “I have always said – when running for MP and for prime minister and when appointed as prime minister – that Russia is our main strategic partner. There is no alternative to it because we have a historical affinity and a shared past. I am convinced that only a united and common future is possible for our countries.” It is clear that Atambayev was trying hard to improve bilateral relations.

Notwithstanding, Kyrgyzstan and Russia have hit some rough patches in the past. In early 2009, after the Kyrgyz parliament voted to close the Manas U.S. airbase, the Kremlin stepped forward and offered a financial aid package to settle Kyrgyzstan’s $180-million debt to Russia. But, unfortunately for Moscow, Kyrgyzstan reneged on its closure vote when the U.S. offered to triple its annual rent payment in order to keep the airbase open as it is an important strategic hub for the U.S. engagement and combat operations in Afghanistan. Eurasianet.org reports that following the constitution referendum in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has publicly criticized the Kyrgyz constitution, which transformed the country into a parliamentary republic by greatly reducing executive power, as a political experiment that could end in a “catastrophe.”

Richard Orange of the Telegraph reports that during Atambayev’s visit, “Mr Putin scrapped a punitive fuel excise duty and offered Kyrgyzstan a $200 million development loan.” Some see the loan offer as something that might sway Kyrgyzstan away from U.S. influence and back into Moscow’s orbit, especially taking advantage of the situation when a pro-Russian government is in Bishkek. How can the naming a mountain peak after Vladimir Putin be seen anything but a political move directed at Russia?

The 4,446 m Vladimir Putin Peak is located in Moskovsy raion, Chuy Oblast in the Kyrgyz Republic. It is somewhere in the basin of the Ak-suu River on the right bank of its right tributary Dzhar-Tash. It is taller than the 3,500 m Peak Yeltsin (named in 2002) and dwarfs in comparison to Peak Lenin towering at 7,134 m. See Peak Putin and Peak Lenin on the map.

View Putin Peak and Lenin Peak on a map in a larger map