Posted on 01/12/2009 10:14:44 PM PST by pobeda1945
ALMATY, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan will call for the U.S. army to withdraw from the Ganci Air Base near its capital Bishkek, Kazakhstan News Agency cited Russian media as reporting on Monday.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev will sign a decree demanding the retreat before his visit to Russia in the near future, the news agency said.
Kyrgyzstan will demand the U.S. army dismantle all its facilities at the Ganci base and halt all activities at the base within six months.
The move by Kyrgyzstan will have a positive influence on negotiations between Russia and Kyrgyzstan over the former providing 300 million U.S. dollars credit to the latter, the Russian Business Consulting Agency said.
Bakiyev also hopes Russia will write off about 180 million dollars in debt.
The United States set up the Ganci Air Base at Manas international airport in the suburb of Bishkek in 2001 in its war against Afghanistan.
In recent years, conflicts between U.S. troops and local residents have occurred from time to time. In Dec. 2006, U.S. soldiers stationed at the base killed a local airport worker, drawing resentment from the Kyrgyz public.
The Kyrgyz parliament has urged the government to reconsider the necessity of the existence of the Ganci base.
Interesting times.
They must be really desperate for money when a small ex-Soviet satellite nation is willing to hang you up to dry for a few hundred mill..
No, they faced the reality that an Obama administration would leave them high and dry in a heartbeat rather than stare down the Bear. No surprise and watch for this to happen all over the place.
bttt
Kyrgyzstan is suffering from a deficit of a several hundred million dollors and several vowels.
Few years back we had an 18yo exchange student from Kyrgyzstan stay with us for the school year. He was a Muslim.
We would order pizza and get a cheese for him and our regular pepperoni and sausage with extra cheese for the rest of us.
Late one night I walk into the kitchen to find him standing in front of the fridge stuffing his face with pepperoni and sausage pizza!
His eyes as big as saucers, and with a mouth full of pizza, he looked at me over the slice stuffed into his mouth and said, “Don’t tell my mom!!”
Probably one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.
Oh, I forgot to ask. Do you live in Russia or one of the republics?
First we were kicked out of Uzbekistan, now it’s Kyrgyzstan giving us the heave-ho.
Farewell, Central Asia. It’s back to the Russians you go.
**51% of us, that is.
I was deployed to the base in Uzbekistan 2003-04. Not a bad place; regular duty hours, low threat level, and beautiful English-speaking Uzbek women who worked for KBR.
At the time I thought this was the beginning of a U.S. presence in Central Asia which would benefit all concerned. Then our wonderful State Department took the 2005 Andijon incident and rubbed it in Karimov’s face, so he told us to clear out.
All the ‘Stan’s are falling in line with this Russian-Chinese Co-Prosperity Sphere or whatever they call it, so Central Asia will once again recede into the same remoteness it’s been in since the 1860’s. Too bad, really.
in Russia
In other words Russia is paying them millions to kick us out.
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