As protests continue to escalate across Kyrgyzstan — especially in the capital of Bishkek — the Kyrgyz government has said that the opposition has agreed to negotiate (although the opposition has said it is still considering sitting down for talks). Protesters have seized government buildings across the country, and many government buildings in Bishkek are burning. The two main issues to examine in the Kyrgyz unrest are why the protests began and who is really behind it. Protests are incredibly common in Kyrgyzstan, especially in spring. The current protests have had months to simmer as the country has faced an escalating electricity crisis, with rolling blackouts and cutoffs occurring regularly while energy prices rose. The root cause of the electricity crisis is the imbalanced natural resource allocation in Central Asia.