BISHKEK (AFP) Oct 08, 2004
Russia is to base another 200 personnel and nine more aircraft at a base in Kyrgyzstan used by Moscow under a Central Asian security pact, a spokesman for Kyrgyzstan's defence ministry said on Friday.
The seven Su-27 fighter bombers and two Mi-8 helicopters will be based at the Kant airbase near this former Soviet republic's capital Bishkek, close to another airbase used by US forces, by the end of this year, a spokesman for Kyrgyzstan's defence ministry said.
"The total number of people at the Russian base will reach 700, including 500 military personnel," the spokesman told AFP.
Kant was opened by Russia's President Vladimir Putin last autumn, the first new military base to be opened by Russia outside its territory since the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse.
Since its opening the base has already become home to nine Russian Su-27s, two Mi-8s and an AN-26 transport aircraft.
US troops arrived in this traditional sphere of Russian influence in 2001, when Washington launched attacks on Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime following the September 11 terror attacks.
Washington has some 1,000 troops at the Manas base outside Bishkek and not far from the Russian base at Kant.
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