President quits

last updated 8 January 2015

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan’s “Tulip Revolution” became official this week, after President Askar Akayev formally stepped down. His resignation made the transfer of power to an interim government legal under the post-Soviet constitution, and cleared the way for a presidential election in June. Akayev fled to Russia last month during an uprising protesting his party’s alleged electoral fraud. He signed his resignation grudgingly at the Kyrgyz Embassy in Moscow, after receiving a guarantee that he would not be prosecuted for anything he did during his 14 years as head of state. “This has nothing to do with a revolution,” Akayev said. “It was a putsch.”