A Central Asian country of incredible natural beauty and proud nomadic traditions, Kyrgyzstan was formally annexed to Russia in 1876. It became a Soviet republic in 1936 and achieved independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2005, a popular revolt sparked by allegations of government interference in parliamentary elections and fueled by poverty and corruption resulted in the ouster of President Askar Akayev, who had run the country since 1990. Former Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev won subsequent presidential elections in July 2005. Opposition groups held a series of demonstrations in 2006 to protest the lack of progress on reform, in particular of the constitution, promised by President Bakiyev in 2005. This resulted in the adoption of a new constitution in November 2006 that transferred some of the president's powers to parliament and the government. But in December 2006, the Kyrgyzstani parliament voted to adopt new amendments, restoring some of the presidential powers lost in the November 2006 constitutional change. In September 2007, the Constitutional Court invalidated the November 2006 and December 2006 versions of the constitution. President Bakiyev then called a snap national referendum on a new version of the constitution which strengthened the powers of the president, and the new constitution was approved in an October 2007 referendum that was marked by serious irregularities. In July 2009 Bakiyev was overwhelmingly re-elected president. Landlocked and mostly mountainous, and with a small agricultural and industrial production base, Kyrgyzstan’s economy is vulnerable to natural disasters and external shocks. The country remains one of the poorest in the world, with about 35 percent of its population living below the poverty line.