Posted by seumasach on June 27, 2013
M.K.Bhadrakumar
26th June, 2013
The geopolitics of Central Asia has begun shifting in anticipation of the NATO forces ending their combat role as well as their pullout from Afghanistan and the proposed establishment of the nine American military bases in that country. Kyrgyzstan today gave the final touch to its strategic decision to demand that the US should vacate the Manas military base near the capital Bishkek by July 11, 2014.
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: kyrgyzstan, the Eurasian Union | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 26, 2012
M.K.Bhadrakumar
25th August, 2012
The great game in Central Asia has a history of occasionally turning rough. Turkey may have become its latest victim.
Posted in Afghanistan, Multipolar world | Tagged: kyrgyzstan, neo-Ottoman imperialism, Russian diplomacy, the great game | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 18, 2011
12th Augiust, 2011
Kyrgyzstan is not going to prolong its agreement with Washington, which entitles the US to use Manas Transit Center to supply its forces in Afghanistan, after it expires in 2014, the republic’s Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev has said.
Posted in Afghanistan, Multipolar world | Tagged: kyrgyzstan, Manas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 22, 2010
The interim Kyrgyz government will press Britain to deny Mr Bakiyev asylum and extradite him. They have already threatened to close the US airbase, sited in the north of the country, unless he is returned. The airbase is a vital part in the resupply logistics for Nato’s Afghanistan operation. A small demonstration demanding Mr Bakiyev’s return was held outside the building that houses representatives of the UK’s Department for International Development in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital. Britain does not have an embassy there.
20th June, 2010
Britain has granted the controversial son of the toppled leader of Kyrgyzstan temporary leave to remain in the country. Maxim Bakiyev, the multi-millionaire son of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, arrived in the UK last week and is claiming asylum.
Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: kyrgyzstan, Manas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 3, 2010
In this final part, F. William Engdhal explains why the stakes for Washington in the Kyrgyzstan events are of vital geopolitical importance. Central Asia is key for Washington’s strategy of global dominance, hinging on the militarization of the entire region. To this end, time-tested tactics of Low Intensity Warfare are generating the pretext for NATO’s permanent expansion under the guise of the ‘war on terror’, with opium gainfully fueling the operations. In Central Asia, as Engdhal suggests, the survival of the U.S. empire hangs in the balance.
F.William Engdahl
2nd June, 2010
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 a prime strategic objective of the Pentagon and of US intelligence has been to deeply penetrate the former Soviet states of Central Asia. The Pentagon pressed for increasing US military presence in the region and succeeded in seducing four of the five central Asian states, including Kyrgyzstan, into NATO’s Partnership for Peace in 1994.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: kyrgyzstan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 2, 2010
“The airbase will not be closed,” this source stated, “but will be used as a lever to influence Americans about narcotics, among other things. In a few months the yearly contract (for Manas-W.E.) ends, and it is an occasion to put some conditions to them” [8].
What happens in Kyrgyzstan is clearly also of utmost strategic importance to Moscow. The fact that Russia has been swift to establish recognition of the new provisional government in Bishkek and to extend financial aid clearly signal the importance of politics in that country for Moscow. Not only was Kyrgyzstan an integral part of the Soviet Union before 1991, it remains a key geographic region. Whether friendly to Moscow or hostile, Kyrgyzstan can be of immense help in stabilizing the Central Asian periphery of Russia, or in destabilizing it.
F.William Engdahl
Voltairenet
30th May, 2010
Clearly the Medvedev-Putin regime is creatively using every level — from energy pipeline deals with the state-owned Gazprom, to military trade — to rollback the threatening NATO encirclement that reached its peak in 2004-2005 with Washington’s ‘Color Revolutions’ in Georgia, Ukraine and finally Kyrgyzstan, the Tulip Revolution that brought strongman Bakiyev into power.
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: kyrgyzstan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 2, 2010
“China’s Ministry of Railways has unveiled one of the world’s most ambitious infrastructure projects. The rail link will connect Xinjiang via Kyrgyzstan, ultimately to Germany and even on to London by 2025.”
Continuing with F. William Engdhal’s analysis of what is playing out in this prize region, part two examines China’s geopolitical interest in Kyrgyzstan. Triggering the 2005 Tulip Revolution were, inter alia, the growing economic ties between the two countries, of which Washington disapproved. Today, China’s economic clout remains its strongest weapon in aiming not only to regain a foothold in Kyrgyzstan, crucial for its expansion into Central Asia, but also to offset the destabilising effects of the U.S. military presence in that country and in the region.
F.William Engdahl
27th May, 2010
China’s growing economic ties to the cash-strapped regime of former Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev was a major reason Washington decided to dump its erstwhile ally Akayev after almost a decade of support. In June 2001 China, along with Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, signed the Declaration creating the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Three days later Beijing announced a large grant to Kyrgyzstan for military equipment [1] .
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: kyrgyzstan | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 26, 2010
The dust has far from settled in Kyrgyzstan after the April 2010 uprising and speculations continue to swirl around the signature behind the events. Kyrgyzstan is a hub of competing interests involving many powers, both regional and extra-regional. The question is to pinpoint how the genuine discontent of the Kyrgyzs people was harnessed and by whom. The least likely scenario is that of a spontaneous domestic rebellion. In the first part of this panoramic analysis, F. William Engdhal focuses on the backdrop to the present situation and on this country’s geostrategic value on the Central Asian chessboard and beyond.
F.William Engdahl
26th May, 2010
The remote Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan is what Britain’s Halford Mackinder might call a geopolitical ‘pivot’ – a land that, owing to its geographical characteristics, holds a pivotal position in Great Power rivalries.
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: kyrgyzstan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 15, 2010
Joanna Lillis
15th April, 2010
A bid by the nominal Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, to stage a comeback in Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, Osh, ended in fiasco on April 15 after he was forced to beat an ignominious retreat amid chaotic competing demonstrations.
Posted in Multipolar world, New Cold War | Tagged: kyrgyzstan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 11, 2010
“Earlier in the day on Saturday, the United States Embassy issued a statement that stopped short of endorsing the new government.”
11th April, 2010
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The United States made its first high-level contact with the interim government of Kyrgyzstan on Saturday, getting assurances that the new leadership would live up to previous agreements and allow American use of an airport that plays an important role in supplying the war effort in Afghanistan.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: kyrgyzstan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 11, 2010
Gregory Feifer
9th April, 2010
When Temir Sariev returned from a trip to Moscow on April 6, the opposition leader carried a surprise message. He told supporters he’d just met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who pledged support for Kyrgyzstan’s opposition.
Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: kyrgyzstan, Manas, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 