Kurmanbek Bakiyev is expected to sail to re-election as president of Kyrgyzstan in polls today in the landlocked central Asian republic that has been at the centre of a contest for influence between Russia and the US.

The economy is slowing steeply. The International Monetary Fund warned last week that growth was likely to drop to 0.9 per cent this year from 7.6 per cent last year as remittances from Kyrgyz working in neighbouring Kazakhstan and Russia fell off.