Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan is scrapping a holiday marking the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in favour of two national holidays that risk controversy with close ally Russia.
As the world prepares to mark the centenary of the revolution that brought Vladimir Lenin and his communist allies to power in Russia, the office of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on Thursday ordered that the country stop commemorating the event because "the date is losing its significance."