Daily Times

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev on Saturday returned to his Central Asian homeland after being discharged from a Moscow hospital where he was treated for heart problems, officials said.

A statement from the Kyrgyz presidency said Atambayev flew into the capital Bishkek after “undergoing treatment” at the Russian government facility. No details were given on his health but a photograph was released showing him smiling as he descended plane steps next to his wife.

Atambayev, 60, was transferred to Russia just over a week ago after being hospitalised with chest pains in Turkey during a stop-off on the way to the United Nations General Assembly. In an earlier statement on Tuesday the Kyrgyz authorities said doctors had noted a “significant improvement in the condition” of Atambayev and problems connected to heart arrhythmia had been “fully resolved”.

Impoverished Kyrgyzstan is commonly viewed as the most democratic country in ex-Soviet Central Asia, an authoritarian former communist region that gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Atambayev – viewed as a close ally of Russia – was elected to power for a single six-year term in 2011 and is due to leave office next year.