AFP. 9 January 2002. Top Russian lawmaker warns against permanent US bases in Central Asia.
MOSCOW -- The speaker of the Russian lower chamber, Gennady Seleznyov, warned Wednesday against allowing US military bases to become permanently established in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. "It is not desirable that permanent US bases be established in central Asia," Seleznyov said during a visit to the Kazakhstan capital Astana, as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Since launching an international campaign against terrorism following the September 11 attacks on US cities, Washington has deployed troops in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to provide support for attacks on the former Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan. Around 2,000 US troops are deployed at a base near the Uzbek capital Tashkent, while US airmen are also operating at Kulyab in Tajikistan, near the border with Afghanistan. US and allied forces have begun setting up a base that could receive up to 3,000 troops near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. Selezynov warned local officials that "as members of the collective security agreement of the Commonwealth of Independent States (a loose grouping of 12 former Soviet republics), we must not take a single decision without mutual consultation." He said his attention had been drawn by "statements by certain US officials that they would not commit the mistake of the Soviet Union and withdraw from Afghanistan." The Soviet Union pulled its troops out of Afghanistan in 1989 after fighting a deacde-long, losing war against US-backed Afghan rebels. Seleznyov is heading a delegation of Russian deputies that was due later to fly on to Tajikistan. Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to back the US campaign in Afghanistan by not making objections to the use of bases in Moscow's traditional sphere of influence has angered many leading figures in Russia's military and diplomatic establishment. They are particularly concerned that the US presence could become permanent, with dangerous implications for Russian security and for Russian interests with relation to oil pipeline routes from the energy-rich Caspian region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
