Word: novosti
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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Zhanybek Bakiyev, who is now in charge of his brother's personal security force, reacted on Monday with the threat of civil war. "I think it would be wrong. It would be bloodshed, a civil war," he told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. "If [the interim government's special forces] are willing to test their skills, we are ready to meet them to fight. But we are also ready for dialogue." (See a brief history of Kyrgyzstan...
...brother admitted on Monday that he had ordered snipers to shoot at armed rioters near the presidential palace last week - a confession unlikely to win the family popularity points. "I ordered my men to open fire only on those who carried weapons. My conscience is clear," he told RIA Novosti. Many of the protesters were able to snatch weapons, including shoulder-mounted grenade launchers, after overpowering and beating riot police on the streets of the capital, Bishkek, and several other cities around the country. They then used the weapons to storm and loot government buildings in a day of upheaval...
...also signs that the initial cost estimates have been way off. Last July, the government said the total construction bill would run about $6.6 billion, but just a couple of months later, it revised that figure to a whopping $34 billion, according to the Russian news service RIA Novosti. Amid concerns that construction is running behind schedule - a problem exacerbated by the workers' strike, now in its second week - political pressure is mounting for the organizers to build faster and cut costs. (See pictures of Putin on vacation...
...despite all the problems, Putin insists that everything in Sochi is fine. "So far, both the timeline and the financing [are] going according to plan," he told RIA Novosti last month. For him, the stakes are enormous, as he made it his personal mission two years ago to win the Olympics for Russia. He even delivered a speech to the International Olympic Committee in English - a first for a Kremlin leader before a Western audience - and promised members that the Sochi Games would be "safe, enjoyable and memorable." He even guaranteed that there would be snow. With the Olympics...