Looks like the feud between Prime Minister Feliks Kulov and alledged criminal authority Ryspek Akmatbaev, which became very public following the death of Tynchybek Akmatbaev in October and then flared up again after Ryspek was acquitted on several murder charges in January, sparking a public letter from Kulov calling Akmatbaev a danger to the “very possibility of Kyrgyzstan’s democratic and civilised development”, something that the latter unsurprisingly took objection to.

After this things were a little quieter in February, before returning to the spotlight this month with a third of Ryspek’s associates being killed . As the Gazeta.kg article explains, the victim, Colonel Murat Jumagumov, a former employee of Ministry of Internal Affairs Central Criminal Investigation Department, had been

… accused of participation in the murders of police Colonel Chynybek Aliev, representative of Talas criminal grouping Nurlan Berdikeev, son-in-law of Aziz Batukaev [Chechen criminal authority] Damir Turgunbaev, of organising criminals bands and keeping weapons and munitions.

But returning to Akmatbaev. Not being one for the quiet life, Ryspek announced his intention to run for the post of deputy for Balykchy district (his deceased brother’s seat) in elections to be held on April 9 after his acquittal in January. However, questions remained regarding previous convictions from 1998, which would technically make him inelligible to run for a parliamentary seat. However, Akmatbaev had his convictions amnestied by the Pervomaiskii region court on February 28 of this year, thus allowing him to run, although questions regarding the legality of this decision remain.

Now, President Bakiev has entrusted foe Feliks Kulov with “elucidating all controversial moments related to Ryspek Akmatbaev”. In the first instance, this will concern whether or not his previous convictions are still in force or not. Obviously this is unlikely to find favour with Akmatbaev, who is likely to cry foul and claim that a fair trial is impossible given the animosity between himself and Kulov.

One is also left wondering why Bakiev is being such a fence-sitter and why he has done something which he must know is going to leave Kulov open to fire again. If one was feeling less than charitable towards Bakiev, it is tempting to see him as either very short-sighted, or, more cynically, as trying to find a way to eliminate Kulov again whilst not being seen to openly disregard the tandem ticket he was elected on. As usual with Kyrgyzstan over the last year, either option seems pretty plausible, so watch this space.