Ordie
08-06-2009, 06:36 PM
July 26, 2009
Kyrgyzstan: At the Crossroad of Empires, a Mouse Struts
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/clifford_j_levy/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/kyrgyzstan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) — The first high-level customers to arrive at this stop on the Silk Road in July were two of Vladimir V. Putin (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/vladimir_v_putin/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s confidants. Got some land for stationing Russian troops — say, something with a nice long runway? Soon after, a senior American diplomat dropped by. Can we put the final touches on that deal to keep our own military base here? (Oh, and by the way, anything else we can do for you?)
Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous nation in Central Asia that has long been a contender for the title of most obscure former Soviet republic, has suddenly become prime real estate, like a once-homely neighborhood that all the A-listers now covet.
Its unexpected emergence onto the international stage says much about how the war in nearby Afghanistan, the struggle for political influence in the former Soviet Union, and the competition to control Central Asia’s bountiful oil and gas reserves are reshaping priorities of the world’s military and economic titans.
Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the world that hosts separate military bases for the United States and Russia (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/russiaandtheformersovietunion/index.html?inline=nyt-geo), and both major powers are bent on sustaining or deepening their presence. That in part explains why neither has publicly condemned the heavy-handed tactics of the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kurmanbek_s_bakiyev/index.html?inline=nyt-per), who easily won another term last week in an election that his opponents said was rigged.
More:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/weekinreview/26levy.html?_r=1&ref=asia&pagewanted=print
Kyrgyzstan: At the Crossroad of Empires, a Mouse Struts
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/clifford_j_levy/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/kyrgyzstan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) — The first high-level customers to arrive at this stop on the Silk Road in July were two of Vladimir V. Putin (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/vladimir_v_putin/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s confidants. Got some land for stationing Russian troops — say, something with a nice long runway? Soon after, a senior American diplomat dropped by. Can we put the final touches on that deal to keep our own military base here? (Oh, and by the way, anything else we can do for you?)
Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous nation in Central Asia that has long been a contender for the title of most obscure former Soviet republic, has suddenly become prime real estate, like a once-homely neighborhood that all the A-listers now covet.
Its unexpected emergence onto the international stage says much about how the war in nearby Afghanistan, the struggle for political influence in the former Soviet Union, and the competition to control Central Asia’s bountiful oil and gas reserves are reshaping priorities of the world’s military and economic titans.
Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the world that hosts separate military bases for the United States and Russia (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/russiaandtheformersovietunion/index.html?inline=nyt-geo), and both major powers are bent on sustaining or deepening their presence. That in part explains why neither has publicly condemned the heavy-handed tactics of the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kurmanbek_s_bakiyev/index.html?inline=nyt-per), who easily won another term last week in an election that his opponents said was rigged.
More:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/weekinreview/26levy.html?_r=1&ref=asia&pagewanted=print