The Bakiyevs raided the national development fund. Then the economic councils were stitched up into rackets for the presidential dauphin. Nepotism was no longer a crime. To quote Kurmanbek Bakiyev himself: "Why should I appoint a stranger to a key government position when I can appoint my own son, as I trust my son more than a stranger?" Money-laundering, murder, front companies, drug-deals, tax hikes and sales of sovereign land to the Chinese — the Bakiyevs behaved as if nobody was watching. Yet the powerless kept a detailed log of their transgressions. 

America was allowed to open an "anti-terror centre" near the Tadjik border. The Kremlin retaliated by ordering its state-controlled media to attack Bakiyev. Corruption and illegality in Kyrgyzstan were feature stories on the daily news. Last August the opposition leader Timur Sariyev told me: "Russia's influence is enormous because people can go freely to Russia and 95 per cent of people speak Russian. Russia has an excellent policy of beaming their broadcasts into Central Asia and as a consequence 50 per cent of all information the Kyrgyz have is Russian. Kyrgyz know more about Russia than their own country. When all you watch is Russian TV the majority just accept Russia's point of view. I think this is very good for Kyrgyzstan." (On 7 April, Sariyev would be gesturing to the mob to storm the headquarters of the security services.) 

But Bakiyev didn't get the message and denied Russia's requests for further bases. Putin responded on 1 April by imposing heavy duties on energy exports to Kyrgyzstan, pushing up gasoline prices by 30 per cent. After a winter of rolling blackouts and soaring utility bills, this was a Russian bullet aimed at Bakiyev's head. On 6 April texts and phones began to buzz with the news that these price rises had triggered mass protests in the provincial city of Talas. Bishkek went to bed thinking nothing of it. 

Today is Revolution." 

"What are you talking about?" 

I am trying to persuade a taxi to drive me to a bar with wi-fi. 

"The other drivers called us. They are marching into the city. The Talas people have come to the city." 

The security guards are evacuating the department stores. Store managers are trying to pull iron shuttering down before it's too late. The pavement is filing with onlookers. Work is ceasing. 

"Freedom or Death!" 

A mobs runs like a river because people get caught up in its flow, then swept along in it. Workers slip into the crowd and lose themselves, shop assistants wade in and pick up rocks to hurl at the police, offices are emptying. Nothing matters now but the surging mob, ripping up paving stones and grabbing planks of wood, metal bars, anything they can use as weapons. 

"Down with the dictator!" 

Endgame: President Kumanbek Bakiyev tried to rally his forces, then fled