[Tailgunner Joe]

Russia Feeling Jealous of American Influence

Dec. 15, 2003
By Jamie Dettmer

Before 9/11 few would have forecast that Moscow might give the green light for the United States to station troops and establish bases in any of the five oil-rich and turbulent states of Central Asia - what the Russians jealously like to call the "Near Abroad." But when hijacked airliners were slammed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon they turned the world upside down. Russian cooperation came quickly with President Vladimir Putin deciding to help solve several U.S. logistical problems in its plan to strike at Afghanistan and approving the basing of U.S. forces in the states of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan for search-and-rescue missions and special operations.

But the Kremlin elicited a pledge that the U.S. presence in the independent but heavily Russian-influenced Central Asian states would be only temporary, say Moscow sources. Now the U.S. presence looks to be a semipermanent one, and the leaders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have been keen to work both sides of the fence. According to Kremlin sources, Putin has encouraged the Central Asian leaders to tell the Americans that it is time to go, but the responses he has received have been ambiguous at best.

In a bid to restore some of Moscow's lost influence in the region, the Kremlin secured agreement earlier this year from Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev to establish an air base in his country at Kant. In October, the base was opened - a mere 20 miles from the U.S. air base at Manas. Putin insisted that the Russian facility is not meant to compete with the U.S. base. "One base will complement the other," he said.

That isn't the way some Russian commentators see it. Military analyst Alexander Golts says there is little military logic to the base at Kant. "Political symbolism is more important than military significance," he explains.

[gcruse]

If Russia made arrangements with Mexico to build a military base in Monterey, Mexico, for the purpose of forward staging in case of turmoil in South America, would the US protest?

[ikka]

I would not be surprised to see the Philippines become a sort of unsinkable aircraft carrier.

The Philippines-USA relationship is more than 50 years old and Filipinos have a great aversion to dictators and Muslim terrorists.

[FreedomCalls]

"... some of its oldest allies, including Germany"

Here's that same LIE again!! Can they be so ignorant to not know about Germany in 1917-1918 or 1941-1945? No they can't. It's simply a LIE told so so big that they think you will not notice. Germany was quite possibly America's biggest adversary for the whole first half of the 20th Century! Germany is not in any way shape or form an "old ally."

[kaiser80]

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