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 Air Base, 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 Kyrgyz 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. |