and the opposition claim of having taken over the government were akin to the Tulip Revolution in 2005. There is also an ongoing debate regarding the continuing US military presence in Kyrgyzstan. Russia backed Bakiyev's government until March 2010. The Eurasian Daily Monitor reported on 1 April that, for two weeks, the Kremlin had used the Russian mass media to run a negative campaign against Bakiyev. Russia controls much of the media in Kyrgyzstan. The campaign sought to associate Bakiyev and his son, Maxim Bakiyev, with an allegedly corrupt businessman whose company had worked in a government project. It quoted that an arrest warrant had been issued in early March by Italian judge Aldo Morgigni for Eugene Gourevitch, a Kyrgyz-American who was accused of defrauding Telecom Italia. Gourevitch was at the time the managing director of a consulting agency that advised Kyrgyzstan's Development Fund, which in turn was managed by the Central Agency run by Maxim. The government soon began closing independent news outlets that reported on Gourevitch affair. Two newspapers were shut down on 18 March. Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz-language service of RFE/RL, went off the air shortly afterward. The opposition newspaper Forum was shut on 31 March, and the independent website Stan.tv had its equipment removed on 1 April. The sudden campaign coincided with Bakiyev's failure to carry out Russia's various demands related to things such as military bases. On 1 April Russia also imposed duties on energy exports to Kyrgyzstan, claiming that a customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan had forced it. It influenced fuel and transport prices immediately, and reportedly led to a massive protest in Talas on 6 April. Vladimir Putin denied any Russian involvement and said the incident had personally caught him "off guard" and that "Neither Russia nor your humble servant nor Russian officials have anything to do with these events". Michael McFaul, a senior United States White House adviser on Russian affairs stated in Prague that the seizure of power by the Kyrgyz opposition was not anti-American in nature, and was not a Russian backed coup. However, Omurbek Tekebayev, who is in charge of constitutional matters in the new government, said: "Russia played its role in ousting Bakiyev. You've seen the level of Russia's joy when they saw Bakiyev gone." Furthermore, Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, was the first foreign leader to recognise Roza Otunbayeva as the new Kyrgyz leader, and