Kremlin Says Kyrgyz Deal No Surprise

The Moscow Times.com ^ | Wednesday, June 24, 2009 | Reuters

[justa-hairyape]

CAIRO, Egypt -- A Kyrgyz deal with the United States to keep a U.S. air base open was agreed with Russia, a Kremlin official said Thursday.

"We support all steps aimed at stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan," said the official accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev in Egypt.

But Kommersant quoted an unidentified Russian diplomat as saying Moscow felt that it had been tricked by Kyrgyzstan over the base and would make an "adequate response" to the deal.

The United States has agreed to pay $180 million to keep open the Manas air base after haggling with Kyrgyzstan since February, when the country secured pledges of $2 billion from Russia and announced its closure.

Kyrgyzstan's ruling party said Wednesday that it had approved the agreement with the United States to keep the Manas air base open.

[justa-hairyape]

This makes more sense. So a deal was struck between Russia and the US to keep Manas open. I guess we will learn what Russia gets within the next month or two (if they got more then silence about Iran). When the Russians claim they were tricked, what they apparently meant was that Kyrgyzstan tricked them somehow and the Russians will come up with an adequate response to Kyrgyzstan.

[Thunder90]

The whole “Tricked” thing is to save face within Russia. Russia hates the Talibs just as much as we do.

[Thunder90]

Oh and yes, we probably gave the Russians something below the table for them to agree to this. Probably something that will cause harm for US security down the road.

[justa-hairyape]

When ever the Russians show weakness, it is a feint. I was expecting to see them cry like banshees about this, but apparently they got a good deal. We will see.