By Karl Vick and Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A01

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, March 25 -- Opposition demonstrators pushed past riot police and seized the presidential headquarters Thursday in this Central Asian country, toppling the government in the third successful popular revolt in a former Soviet republic in 16 months. President Askar Akayev dropped from sight, and Russian news agencies reported that he had flown to neighboring Kazakhstan.

In the capital, Bishkek, the supreme court quickly nullified the results of disputed elections that had sparked the uprising. Members of parliament appointed their speaker, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, as acting president, news services reported.

Jubilant protesters took turns sitting at Akayev's vacant desk in the palace and freed opposition prisoners from jails, capping an operation that met little resistance from government security forces. Others turned to looting and vandalism. Thieves stole cars and pillaged a department store and jewelry shops in the capital Thursday night despite calls from opposition leaders for calm, according to the Reuters news agency.

By Friday morning the city was subdued but not tense. Pedestrians were somewhat fewer than usual because many shops were closed, residents said. Municipal crews cleaned the streets as parliament met. There appeared to be no police presence.

"It's good Akayev has left," said Mirwan Mahmutov, a taxi driver. "The people are the leader right now."

The speed with which the government crumbled seemed to leave many of its opponents dizzy. The opposition seized major cities in the south early in the week; their first demonstration in the capital, on Wednesday, was small and easily dispersed by riot police. But Thursday, they massed in larger numbers, marched on the presidential compound and burst inside after scuffling with Akayev supporters.

"This morning when we organized the protests, I could not even imagine where it would all lead," said Kurmanbek Bakiyev, an opposition leader, standing on an armored vehicle in front of the government building.

Fourteen years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, democratic institutions continue to struggle to take root in its former territory. Kyrgyzstan, a poor, mostly Muslim country of 5 million people north of Afghanistan, has known only one president, Akayev, a physicist and former Soviet legislator, since independence. Once viewed as the most tolerant leader in Soviet Central Asia, he had grown more authoritarian in recent years, with family members holding political office and amassing fortunes in business.

Kyrgyzstan's revolt followed street uprisings in two other former republics -- the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia, which brought Western-oriented leaders to office. The Bush administration has welcomed the changes; Russia, which views countries on its border as a natural sphere of influence, has watched warily but allowed the new governments to assume power.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Kyrgyzstan became an important staging area for U.S. forces supporting operations in Afghanistan. About 1,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed at an air base outside the capital; the country received $50.8 million in U.S. aid last year.

U.S. Ambassador Stephen M. Young is trying to bring together the different opposition groups and urging their supporters to avoid violence and stress dialogue, a senior State Department official said Thursday. "Given the unruliness of what has proceeded it, you've got to be concerned," the official said. ". . . This is terra incognita for everybody."

"We've been in contact with Russians and central Asians," the official said, "all to help reassure the Kyrgyz that there is an international mechanism to work their way through this and you don't have to resort to extreme measures.

"Now that Akayev is gone, the message is to deal with the situation through existing institutions and in a way that is transparent and inclusive -- bring all the factions together and come up with a way forward that everyone can agree on, instead of backroom deals that exclude people and impose a dictate."

In Washington on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted that events were moving very fast and said that if "responsible parties can encourage the various parties in Kyrgyzstan to move into a process that will then lead to the election of a government and move this process of democracy forward, it will have been a very good thing."

J. Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, denied Russian assertions that the revolt was organized by the United States. The uprising was due to "a negative public reaction when the accepted processes for political expression and political change are tampered with and when the rule of law is not followed," he said.

The opposition freed Felix Kulov, a former interior minister, from jail in the uprising, and analysts said he could become a significant figure as the country moves toward new presidential and parliamentary elections.

Kulov was arrested after saying he would run against Akayev in 2000 and sentenced to 10 years on embezzlement and abuse of power charges, which his supporters have said were politically motivated.

After his release, he declared on national television that this was a "revolution made by the people. . . . Tomorrow will come, and we must decide how to live tomorrow."

The day began with opposition protesters assembling on the outskirts of Bishkek. Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev, who was appointed only Wednesday and was considered a pro-Akayev hard-liner, addressed the crowd and seemed to pull back from earlier warnings that his forces could use "special means and firearms" against the opposition. He urged protesters to obey the law but told them police would not use force against anyone who was unarmed.

The crowd marched on the huge stone government compound, gathering people along the way. The protesters' first attempt to break through police lines failed, according to reports from the scene. Several people were injured in clashes between protesters and the president's supporters.

Security forces stood down, however, when demonstrators made a second attempt to get into the building, suggesting that entry had been negotiated in an attempt to avoid more serious violence.

"It didn't take long," said Shakirat Toktosunova of the Eurasia Foundation, which funds democratic projects. "A group of people from different regions came to Bishkek and all went to the center. It didn't take more than a couple of hours for them to take over the president's office."

Ulan Shambetov, an opposition figure, spoke to reporters as he sat at a desk in Akayev's wood-paneled office. "It's not the opposition that has seized power, it's the people who have taken power. The people," he said. "They have been fighting for so long against corruption, against that family," a reference to Akayev and his relatives.

Protesters tossed computers and paper from the windows of the government building, smashed furniture and crushed portraits of Akayev. Outside, several government Mercedes were set alight, according to local reports. "One of the large supermarkets was broken into, the windows shattered," Toktosunova said in a telephone interview from the capital.

Events moved rapidly after the building was seized. The opposition took control of a pro-government television station and organized the release of Kulov, the former interior minister, who then addressed the nation on television. Prime Minister Nikolay Tanayev tendered his resignation. Bakiyev, the opposition leader, said senior officials in the security, interior and defense ministries had begun to work with the new authorities.

Opposition leaders sought to rein in young supporters. "We will establish order. We will not allow looting. We will hold our own elections to start our rule," Bakiyev said.

The revolt began in earnest Sunday and Monday when the opposition took control of Osh, the country's second city and largest city in the south, and nearby Jalal-Abad. There is a strong north-south regional divide in the country, exacerbated by the south's relative poverty.

Reaction in Russia, which also has troops in Kyrgyzstan, was muted. The Foreign Ministry said little more than that the opposition should act within the law.

After fallout from its role in Ukraine, where the Kremlin openly backed the losing candidate and dismissed the popular protests, the Russian government appears more reconciled to change. In the run-up to the elections in Kyrgyzstan, it had pointedly met with leading opposition figures when they visited Moscow.

Finn reported from the Czech Republic. Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.