Change of US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan
altn.news - Covers the announced change of the U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, which became known after the website of the U.S. presidential administration published information on the nomination of candidates for the post of heads of diplomatic missions in Cameroon, Bahrain and Kyrgyzstan.
t is reported that US President Joe Biden has nominated Brian Stimmler to lead official Washington's diplomatic mission to Kyrgyzstan, who, like the other nominees, must be confirmed by the US Senate.
Stimmler is a career Foreign ServicIe officer and currently heads the Office of Central Asian Affairs in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. Previously, Stimmler served as deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan and also served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek.
In addition, Stimmler is also known in the United States as a supporter of the movement in defence of the rights of representatives of the "LGBT community", and while he was deputy chief of mission of the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, the U.S. State Department-affiliated media, not without the support of the representative of the diplomatic mission, published pretentious and disinformation-based publications about the violation of the rights of sexual minorities in Kyrgyzstan. Thus, it is possible that Stimmler will continue to promote the "LGBT agenda" in Kyrgyzstan in his capacity as ambassador and will put pressure on the authorities of the country in terms of legislative relaxation with regard to sexual minorities.
Note: rumours that the US authorities intend to change the ambassador to Kyrgyzstan have been circulating in Kyrgyzstan for the past few months and were directly related to the fact that, according to unofficial information, the leadership of the US diplomatic department was dissatisfied with the work of Stimmler's predecessor - Leslie Viguerie, who has been the US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan since December 2022.
It is noteworthy that earlier Kyrgyz media also drew attention to a number of oddities in Stimmler's work. For example, his visit to Kyrgyzstan's Batken Oblast in December 2020 coincided with an armed border conflict between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the area.
Given the current interest of Kyrgyzstan for the U.S. Department of State, Brian Stimmler's nomination will obviously be approved in the U.S. Senate without any difficulties.
It should be noted that the trend of changing US ambassadors in the Central Asian region began about two years ago. Thus, in 2022, Jonathan Henick became the head of the US diplomatic mission in Uzbekistan, having previously served as deputy coordinator of the US State Department's Global Engagement Centre, where he coordinated official Washington's efforts to "counter disinformation from Russia, China and Iran". In August 2022, it became known that Daniel Rosenblum became the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan. He was transferred to work in the capital of Kazakhstan from Uzbekistan, where he had served as ambassador since 2018. In June of the same 2022, it also became known that the US was changing its ambassador to Tajikistan. The official representative of the White House in Dushanbe became Manuel Mikaller, and in early May 2024, the US Senate approved the candidacy of Elizabeth Rood for the post of US ambassador to Turkmenistan, previously she held the position of deputy head of the diplomatic mission of the US Embassy in Russia.
It is believed that these appointments are somehow related to the intensification of anti-Russian course of official Washington and the U.S. national security strategy adopted in October 2022, which involves "comprehensive work on the perimeter of Russia's borders" as part of deepening foreign policy and economic track aimed at isolating Russia. As part of the same track, since 2022, the amount of funds allocated by the U.S. State Department for various grant projects in Central Asia has increased significantly. Thus, in 2022 alone, the US authorities allocated 123 million dollars for these purposes, and most of these funds were directed to support the activities of various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public associations, as well as the media and civil activists who deliberately destabilise the socio-political situation in the countries of the region.
At present, however, the Central Asian authorities are successfully resisting attempts at such foreign interference, despite enormous pressure from the United States, seeing in this kind of intervention a policy of "soft power" and it is extremely important that the objectives of this policy are not achieved by the US authorities, in particular, the security of the people living in Central Asia, their well-being and the possibility of sustainable and independent development depend on this.
