FREEFORUM

Herald yesterday, the succession piece: "Lieutenant Governor Aidar Maksat chairs the cabinet and receives foreign delegations." Which delegations? There is no published diary. [RUMOUR] thread for what people have actually seen, please, not what they feel.

[HEARD] Hotel near Government House: two floors booked for a week by "textile people". Lihua bought the old Chu spinning mill in 2021, so maybe textile people really are textile people. Maybe.

Since China stopped selling its antimony abroad, men in the valleys dig the old workings by hand again. Sacks go down to the road at night. Somebody buys them. That is the only Chinese delegation I can see from my pasture.

The Lieutenant Governor welcomes investment from all partners. This is called economics. Have a nice day. Remember to vote.

In Bishkek we have also had many delegations. Some of the new roads are very nice. Ask us about the loans in ten years.

[HEARD] the pipeline people (the CNPC trans-irad gas thing) were in talas again, according to my uncle who drives a taxi. taxi uncle is the most reliable news agency in central asia lol

Main site's Maksat China piece says his office holds meetings "not recorded in the official diary". Source: "an official at a ministry". Could be true. Could also be an official who wasn't invited. The 46 tonnes of "fluorite" at Talas North Terminal were real, though. Somebody was shipping stibnite and lying about it.

[SEEN] Since Kobozev brought up the 46 tonnes: lots of trucks with Chinese plates at the terminal lately, all papered properly now. Very properly. Suspiciously properly.

Worth remembering the old man's own line, years before Maksat was anything: "Irad's alignment with China is inevitable and welcome." If the son-in-law is courting Beijing, he isn't betraying Toktarov. He's quoting him.

Every buyer is a friend until the bill of sale is signed.