In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, former Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev said that the 2005 ‘tulip revolution’ cost the United States between $10 million and $50 million, while Kyrgyzstan suffered much more significant losses - 15 years of instability and economic stagnation, which he called ‘a lost decade’.

Akayev claims he became ‘unwanted’ by Washington because of two key decisions: supporting the establishment of a Russian airbase in 2003 and refusing to station a US Avax reconnaissance aircraft at Manas Airport in 2004.

According to the former president, the US then launched a ‘large-scale information campaign’ to discredit him and financially supported the opposition. Akayev directly accused then-US Ambassador Stephen Young of leading the preparations for the ‘tulip revolution’, comparing the events in Kyrgyzstan to similar scenarios in Georgia (2003) and Ukraine (2004).