Kyrgyz energy minister fired amid crisis

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzstan’s president fired the energy minister Tuesday amid mounting public criticism over his handling of electricity shortages in the impoverished Central Asian nation.

Industry and Energy Minister Saparbek Balkibekov presided during a worsening power crisis that could leave large swaths of the country without electricity over the coming winter months.


An unusually cold winter last year forced authorities to generate additional electricity supplies, leaving water levels dangerously low at a hydroelectric plant that generates 40 percent of the country’s power.

The government introduced rationing over the summer to replenish water levels at the Toktogul facility, but the savings were insufficient to guarantee future supplies.

AP