Russia targets US base by instigating Kyrgyzstan ‘coup’

http://thedawn.com.pk/2010/04/12/russia-targets-us-base-by-instigating-kyrgyzstan-coup/

Russia calls President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as a repugnant dictator whose family was stealing billions of dollars 
from this impoverished nation.

April 12, 2010 • 12:38 am 

 

Russia considers the Central Asian Republics as its sphere of influence. ALl of them used to be part of the USSR. US encroachment into Central Asia is not welcome. Only those living in caves may not know the goings on in Bishkek. Kyrgyzstan’s deposed president, Kurman Baki (Russianized to Kurmanbek Bakiyev) took the Russians for a ride, and now he has paid for it. He tried to hoodwink the Russians by promising to shut down the US base. Mr. Kurmanbek did actually shut down the American base, he then took the Russian money ($2 billion) worth more than the total budget of the country and then double crossed Moscow by allowing the US to operate a base. Mr. Kurmanbek thus was trying to be very smart. The coup was all about the US base.

  • Kremlin had made no secret of its growing displeasure with Bakiyev,

  • Russian television stations broadcast scathing reports portraying President Kurmanbek Bakiyev

  • The Russian media campaign, along with punishing economic measures adopted by the Kremlin, was a clear indication of things to come.

  • At the very least the Russian campaign played a critical role in fanning public anger against Bakiyev.

If Washington thought that Mr. Kurmanbek would get away with his double dealing then there are a few naive diplomats working in the State Department.

http://thedawn.com.pk/2010/04/08/russian-coup-against-us-friendly-leader-in-kyrgyzstan/

Kyrgyzstan turmoil: Only the ECO can save Central Asia

We had already reported our analysis a week ago–which was promptly repudiated by the official US machinery. However now they are having second opinions on this.

BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN — Less than a month before the violent protests that toppled the government of Kyrgyzstan last week, Russian television stations broadcast scathing reports portraying President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as a repugnant dictator whose family was stealing billions of dollars from this impoverished nation.

The media campaign, along with punishing economic measures adopted by the Kremlin, played a critical role in fanning public anger against Bakiyev and bringing people into the streets for the demonstrations that forced him to flee the capital Wednesday, according to protest leaders, local journalists and analysts.

“Even without Russia, this would have happened sooner or later, but . . . I think the Russian factor was decisive,” said Omurbek Tekebayev, a former opposition leader who is now the No. 2 figure in the government.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has denied that Moscow played any role in the uprising, and leaders of the movement to oust Bakiyev insist they received only moral support. But the Kremlin had made no secret of its growing displeasure with Bakiyev, and over the past few months it steadily ratcheted up the pressure on his government while reaching out to the opposition.

The strategy was a sharp departure from Russia’s traditional support for autocratic leaders in its neighborhood. It paid off quickly and dramatically, and it appears to have delivered the Kremlin a rare foreign policy victory.

Not only has Moscow served notice on other wayward autocrats in its back yard — many of whom also govern Russian-speaking populations that watch Russian television — it also appears to have gained a greater say over the future of the U.S. air base here, which is critical to supplying the NATO military surge in Afghanistan.

Little more than a year ago, the Kremlin regarded Bakiyev as an ally, promising him more than $2 billion in aid during a visit to Moscow at the height of the global economic crisis.

On the same trip, Bakiyev announced plans to close the U.S. air base, in what was widely seen as an exchange.

  • Kyrgyzstan’s self-proclaimed new leadership said on Thursday that Russia had helped to oust President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and that they aimed to close a U.S. airbase that has irritated Moscow. Reuters

  • Kyrgyzstan: The real Graveyard of Empires is AfPak-TurkTaj-UzbKaz-AzKyr -istan

  • Omurbek Tekebayev, a former Kyrgyz opposition leader who took charge of constitutional matters in the new government, said that “Russia played its role in ousting Bakiyev.”

  • “You’ve seen the level of Russia’s joy when they saw Bakiyev gone,” he told Reuters. “So now there is a high probability that the duration of the U.S. air base’s presence in Kyrgyzstan will be shortened.” Reuters

  • Russian-backed coup or not, the uprising in Kyrgyzstan means the United States may have to bargain hard to keep its last military base in Central Asia. Reuters

  • Turmoil in Kyrgyzstan has thrust the fate of the Manas air base — which is crucial for fighting the Afghan war — to the forefront of rivalry between the United States and Russia.

  • Russia has long dreamed of evicting the United States from Central Asia and a Russian official said on Thursday that Moscow would urge the interim Kyrgyz government to shut the U.S. base.

  • Suspicions of the Kremlin’s hand in the unrest were raised when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became the first world leader to recognize the authority of the self-proclaimed government, just hours after it took power. Reuters

Four months later, after Russia had made good on $415 million of its pledge, Bakiyev suddenly agreed to keep the air base open when Washington offered more than three times the original rent. Russian officials, including President Dmitry Medvedev, indicated at the time that they had blessed the decision, but it soon became clear that the Kremlin had been cheated — and was furious.

“The Russians were upset and angry, not just because of the base but because of his attitude,” Tekebayav said.

In November, Russian media reported that Putin upbraided the Kyrgyz prime minister at a summit, asking why the U.S. air base had not been closed and alleging that the Russian aid money had been stolen by Bakiyev’s family. In February, Moscow postponed payment of the remaining $1.7 billion of the package, with officials saying publicly that the first tranche had been misused.

In late March, two weeks before the April 7 protests, Russia’s Kremlin-friendly television stations and newspapers marked the fifth anniversary of Bakiyev’s rise to power in the putsch known as the Tulip Revolution with unusually tough stories about his rule. One paper compared him to Genghis Khan, and Russia’s top television station hammered him with multiple reports alleging corruption.

Much of the coverage focused on Bakiyev’s son, Maksim, whom he appointed to lead an economic development agency and who had become a lightning rod for opposition charges of nepotism and embezzlement.

In addition to the reversal on the U.S. base, analysts said, the Kremlin turned against Bakiyev because he tried to bring China into a Russian deal to build a hydroelectric dam and to extract rent from Moscow for a Russian air base in Kyrgyzstan. Russian leaders were also upset that Bakiyev’s family was buying gasoline from Russia at special prices and selling it to the air base, a scheme worth as much as $80 million per year, Russian media reported.

Alexander Knyazev, a political analyst here with ties to a Moscow think tank, said people began to worry that the Kremlim might expel the estimated 1 million Kyrgyz migrants who work in Russia and send money home to their families. The remittances account for as much as a third of the Kyrgyz economy and at least half of the government’s budget, he said.

“Bakiyev was spoiling the relationship, and people saw it,” he said. “That’s how this protest mood got started.”

After the opposition announced plans for nationwide protests, Putin provided a final spark by signing a decree March 29 eliminating subsidies on gasoline exports to Kyrgyzstan and other former Soviet republics that had not joined a new customs union.

When the tariffs kicked in April 1, Russian fuel shipments to Kyrgyzstan were suspended, said Bazarbai Mambetov, president of a Kyrgyz oil traders association. Within days, gas prices in Bishkek began to climb, enraging residents already angry about sharp increases in utility fees.

  • Roza Otunbayeva, the woman lifted to power by Kyrgyzstan’s second popular revolt in five years, is a Moscow-educated, English-speaking former foreign minister who will likely find quick acceptance in Russia and the West alike.

  • Ms. Otunbayeva, who served as Kyrgyz ambassador in London and Washington during the 1990s, held her first official conversation as head of the interim government with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

  • Mr. Putin appeared to throw Moscow’s support her way. CS Monsitor

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