Recent Uprising in Kyrgyzstan is a VERY SERIOUS Matter

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unionjack
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Recent Uprising in Kyrgyzstan is a VERY SERIOUS Matter

Post by unionjack »

It is really going to complicate relations between China, Russia & The US.

Brace yourselves!!!!
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Re: Recent Uprising in Kyrgyzstan is a VERY SERIOUS Matter

Post by MasterOfMeatPuppets »

It's not particularly close to China and Russia is the one who regard it as in their backyard. That's why they tried to buy off the previous ruler to get rid of the US base there.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpa ... ost_3.html
Does the U.S. need to worry about Kyrgyzstan's new leader?

The self-proclaimed interim leader of Kyrgyzstan -- an obscure Central Asian state with a very important U.S. military base -- raised some alarms in Washington when she took a congratulatory phone call from Vladimir Putin and thanked Russia for its “significant help” in disposing of the regime of Kurbanbek Bakiyev. Bakiyev, after all, had defied Putin by refusing to close the U.S. Manas airbase, which is important to the war in Afghanistan, even after Putin summoned him to Moscow last year and essentially paid him to do so.

An unnamed Russian official in Prague fueled the speculation by telling reporters Thursday that Kyrgyzstan should have only one foreign military base -- and that it should be Russian. So, did Moscow somehow sponsor this week’s popular rebellion-cum-coup in order to expel the United States from what it regards as its sphere of influence?

Not likely. I’ve met Roza Otunbayeva, the new Kygyrz leader, as have many in Washington. She lived here for several years in the 1990s while serving as her country’s first ambassador to the United States. She is a product of the former Soviet Union; she was once the Soviet ambassador to Malaysia. But the good news is that she comes as close as anyone in Kyrgyzstan does to being a liberal democrat.

Otunbayeva, now 59, came to Washington in June 2005 as acting foreign minister following Kyrgyzstan’s last revolution -- one that, like that of the last several days, involved the violent ouster of an autocrat by mobs that stormed government buildings. That episode was called “the Tulip revolution,” in the spirit of the popular uprisings for democracy that had taken place in Georgia, Ukraine and Lebanon in the previous 18 months.

But the nature of the 2005 Kyrgyz uprising was more ambiguous than the other “color revolutions.” Some of its leaders were advocates of liberal democracy; others were simply rivals of the previous ruler, Askar Akayev. It wasn’t clear what direction the new regime would go in -- and as it turned out, a new autocracy, led by Bakiyev, began to entrench itself a few months later.

Otunbayeva, however, was a confirmed member of the liberal camp. During the visit to Washington, she stressed that she wanted “the United States to protect democracy and build democracy,” as I quoted her at the time. She asked then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for help in funding free media and in training security forces. She said the new administration would hold free and fair elections. And she said Kyrgyzstan should seek good relations with both Russia and the United States. “We want to debut a new country and a new attitude of the world toward us,” she said.

A few months later, Otunbayeva was forced out of the foreign ministry, and she soon became an opposition leader. Since then, she has watched, no doubt with frustration, as the United States cultivated Bakiyev, even as he constructed a corrupt, nepotistic regime and staged fraudulent elections. It would be understandable if she harbored resentment. She’s also only one of a few opposition leaders; her position as interim president doesn’t necessarily mean her views will prevail.

It nevertheless seems possible that Otunbayeva -- if she survives the ongoing turmoil -- will try to return to the program she spelled out five years ago. She’s been quoted as saying that the new regime will not immediately act on the Manas base, and that it will hold elections in six months. At best, Otunbayeva could lead a breakthrough for democracy in autocrat-dominated Central Asia -- which would be a win for the United States.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD9EV0E183
US Russia considering cooperation on Kyrgyzstan

(AP) – 3 hours ago

PRAGUE — U.S. officials said Thursday they're working closely with Russia to respond to the uprising in Kyrgyzstan despite previous conflict over a military base in the Central Asian nation.

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the issue before signing an arms treaty in Prague, U.S. officials told reporters later.

Michael McFaul, Obama's senior director for Russian affairs, emphasized that the U.S. did not view the conflict as any kind of proxy struggle between the U.S. and Russia, even though Russia previously tried to lay claim to an air base in the country that the U.S. obtained from the regime now under assault.

The status of the Manas U.S. air base, a supply line to the war in Afghanistan, is now uncertain with a bloody uprising overtaking the Kyrgyzstan capital and the opposition forming an interim government.

"The people that are allegedly running Kyrgyzstan ... these are all people we've had contact with for many years," McFaul said. "This is not some anti-American coup, that we know for sure. And this is not some sponsored-by-the-Russians coup, there's just no evidence of that."

U.S. troops working at Manas base have been restricted to the facility outside the capital of Bishkek, with humanitarian missions and other trips temporarily suspended, Manas air field spokesman Maj. Rickardo Bodden said Thursday. The facility is an important transit point for NATO troops and supplies flying in and out of Afghanistan and those flights have been cut back.

McFaul presented the cooperation over Kyrgyzstan as another sign of improved U.S.-Russia relations. He said Medvedev initiated the discussion with Obama.

McFaul said there was no specific decision on how the two nations might respond, though he raised the prospect of a cooperative measure such a joint statement.

"We're trying to keep the peace right now," McFaul said.

"We talked in general terms of things we've got to coordinate."

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By Jackson Diehl | April 8, 2010; 3:04 PM ET
Of course, it may not be that bad after all.
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Re: Recent Uprising in Kyrgyzstan is a VERY SERIOUS Matter

Post by vlad »

MOMP...one tiny quibble....China actually borders Kyrgyzstan....and there is a connection and if I remember correctly some cooperation with the ethnic unrest across the border in western China....

I am possibly the only person on Sludge that has a map of Kyrgyzstan on my office wall, along with about 20 other countries (lots of "stans")....a topo map. It's for my history work...
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