Despite the Russians being the first to recognize Kyrgyzstan’s new leadership (currently led by former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva, but that could change over the next couple days), things are still a complete mess in Bishkek following yesterday’s violent uprising.  The general message we are seeing from reports on the ground:  it’s not a revolution, not a foreign organized coup (at least there isn’t much evidence of that yet), but rather a violent outbreak of extreme discontent with the corruption of the regime and spiraling prices for electricity and other basic goods.  (UPDATE: Steve LeVine also makes the point that there is nothing “popular” about the uprising – elites have their hands all over the process.)

From Joshua Keating at Foreign Policy:

So what happens now? Opposition leaders claim to have seized control of the government, but no one seems to be officially in charge of the country right now and the prospect of another destabilizing power struggle looms.