Small and impoverished, Kyrgyzstan has seen two "colored" revolutions in five years, the 2005 Tulip Revolution and the events of April 2010. Now it is on the verge of a historic opportunity to create an island of democracy in a region where for two decades president-dictators have ruled with impunity.

By all appearances, the United States faces a serious public diplomacy challenge in Kyrgyzstan. Washington’s sluggish initial response has enabled Russia to take the early lead in what is shaping up as a race to cultivate the goodwill of the Kyrgyz provisional government.

"The events in Kyrgyzstan have become yet another piece of evidence of the high level of instability” across the former Soviet space, according to one of Russia’s most thoughtful Muslim leaders. And other analysts are now debating in just which country a similar set of events might take place next.

The instability highlights both Kyrgyzstan's vital role for the US war in Afghanistan and the compromises both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have made to deal with an increasingly unsavory regime.

Days after Kyrgyz authorities closed two more independent media outlets, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly rebuked President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s human rights record. During Ban’s short visit to Bishkek, demonstrators clashed with police outside the UN office and later in front of parliament, demanding the government stop harassing the press.