Several members of the Kyrgyz Legislative Assembly walked out of a parliamentary session on 16 February to protest what they called discrimination against the state language. Opposition parliamentarian Azimbek Beknazarov later told akipress.org that he refused to look at a draft law submitted by the government in Russian, which in Kyrgyzstan has the status of \"official language,\" and a number of other parliamentarians agreed with him. Beknazarov added that he will not return to the chamber until the government provides its drafts in Kyrgyz as well as Russian. (akipress.org)