Presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan were held openly and legitimately, they are trustworthy and this experience should be adopted by the US authorities. Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said this on Thursday at a meeting with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov, who is on his first official visit to Russia.
"Our observers took part in the election and everybody agreed that the level of competition, openness and legitimacy was high," the Duma press service quotes Volodin as saying. He noted that "the elections in Kyrgyzstan were more open than in the United States." "The US has always offered to learn from them, now they need to learn from you. In contrast to the US there is confidence in the elections in Kyrgyzstan," the speaker pointed out, congratulating Zhaparov on his election.
Inter-parliamentary cooperation
Volodin expressed hope that Zhaparov's visit would give a new impetus to the development of interstate relations, including between the parliaments of the two countries. "Russia and Kyrgyzstan are strategic partners, and therefore it is very important for us that the parliaments do everything for the development and strengthening of our relations, and that the dialogue takes place within the CSTO, CIS and EEC formats as well as within the profile committees," he said.
The Chairman of the State Duma stressed, "We do have a lot in common: the history of our countries, the fact that today we can rely on cultural ties and educational projects. - It is important for us to better understand each other, to have a joint position at the inter-parliamentary forums". According to him, it will strengthen decisions made jointly.
Volodin said that at the end of March he has a meeting with Talant Mamytov, the Speaker of the Kyrgyz Parliament, within the framework of the Council of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, which will meet in Dushanbe. "We will discuss relations between the parliaments of our countries, as well as issues of harmonization of legislation together with the CSTO member states," Volodin said.
During the meeting, Volodin also highlighted such an aspect in the two countries' relations as the official status of the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan. "The official language in Kyrgyzstan is Russian. These are new opportunities for the citizens of Kyrgyzstan. We made a decision that allows representatives of countries in which Russian is the language of official communication to receive a number of benefits. For example, they do not need to retrain for their driver's license," he noted.
"No one is waiting for the citizens of our countries in Europe, there is no opportunity there for the kind of self-fulfillment that the citizens of Kyrgyzstan may have here in our country," Volodin added.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS