Russian Roulette in Central Asian republics.

On July 29 the Uzbek Government formally gave the U.S. 180 days to evacuate their Karshi-Khanabad (also written Qarshi-Xonobod) air base on which the the Pentagon has spent huge sums improving and upgrading the base.

In the short term the closure of the Karshi-Khanabad air base, loss of jobs and U.S. money would damage the Uzbek economy. The Pentagon has spent huge sums improving and upgrading the base.

The US has been fairly quiet on the future of the deployed planes, equipment and staff at Dushanbe although Rumsfeld visited both Tajikistan and Kyrgistan to call up support for help for US forces. The USA evidently will maintain its military presence in Central Asia “The Pentagon has not yet finally decided where the air base could be relocated from Uzbekistan, but it plans to maintain its military presence in the region,” an unnamed source told Mosnews.

The US military have started to transfer military equipment from Uzbekistan to the Manas air base near Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, which the US Air Force has used since 2001, he said. “However, this does not mean that the Karshi-Khanabad air base will be relocated exactly in Kyrgyzstan, because other options are also under consideration,”

“The Americans might deploy an air base at the Aini airfield near Dushanbe (Tajikistan), or at the Ganca airfield 300 km west of Baku and near Nasosnaya outside Baku in Azerbaijan,” he said.

“By expert estimates, the most preferable option for the Pentagon is to deploy an air base in Tajikistan. Flights from the Aini airfield would make it possible for US military planes to fly to any regions in Afghanistan without refueling, which is impossible to do flying, for instance, from the Manas airfield,” .

The USAF is currently using Manas and Karshi-Khanabad air bases in Central Asia for logistics support of its troops in Afghanistan, and is also using Incirlik base in Turkey.

Such plans may however be a trifle premature, Interfax News Agency on 4th August, quoted the head of the Tajik Defense Ministry’s press service, Colonel Zarobiddin Sirodzhoyev who said Tajikistan is not going to host the U.S. planes currently deployed at the Karshi-Khanabad base at the Ainy airport 20 kilometers from Dushanbe.

He explained that landing strip and the general infrastructure of the Ainy airport are currently being renovated, and so take-off and landing are currently impossible, claiming “Only helicopters of the Tajik Defense Ministry are stationed at Ainy.”

On April 5 2005 RIA Novosti reported, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov saying that as a result of a deal with the Tajik Government , Russian subdivisions will be based in Giprozem outside Dushanbe where barracks, a hospital, and a park for military equipment are to be built and that "Two Russian regiments will stay in Kulyaba and in Kurgan-Tube,".

Ivanov also said that aviation equipment would be transported from a civil aerodrome in Dushanbe to the air base in Aini. "A military base is inefficient without the aviation component," he explained.

He added that it took Russian aircraft five minutes to reach Tajikistan from the Russian Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan and twenty minutes to get to Dushanbe. There should be a certain overlap of forces from Aini and Kant, said Ivanov.

"In the next two-three years, this money will have to be spent to provide a normal and modern infrastructure for the base," said Ivanov.

Russian subdivisions will be based in Giprozem outside Dushanbe where barracks, a hospital, and a park for military equipment are to be built. (pic Tu-22)

"Two Russian regiments will stay in Kulyaba and in Kurgan-Tube," said the minister.
Ivanov also said that aviation equipment would be transported from a civil aerodrome in Dushanbe to the air base in Aini. "A military base is inefficient without the aviation component," said the minister.

Shortly after the May 13th Andijan massacre the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional alliance led by China and Russia, called on the U.S. to set a date for withdrawing forces from bases in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.


Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Mosnews now report that Russian soldiers have been staying in Uzbekistan for more than a month preparing to take charge of the Khanabad airbase after the U.S. troops withdrawal.

Sources in the Russian Defense Ministry have also confirmed the reports. One of them said that after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization demanded U.S. troops withdrawal from the former Soviet republic, China immediately expressed interest in the base. Thus, Russian troops rushed their in order not to lose their chances of taking control of an area that used to belong to the USSR. “Uzbeks did not mind,” he pointed out.

As the editor-in-chief of an Uzbek news agency Fergana Daniil Kislov told the paper, “several hundreds of Russian servicemen — presumably Spetsnaz troops of airborne commandos — remain at a former geological exploration airbase near the military installation, wear civilian clothes and try not to get in touch with local people.”

However, Uzbek diplomats and Russian Defense Ministry officials wouldn’t confirm deny reports, an unnamed military person said in an interview with the daily that Russian troops will oversee the handover of Karshi-Khanabad airbase. Khanabad used to be the second-largest airbase in the Soviet Union, hosting strategic Tu-22MZ planes (pic) and Tu-95 (NATO designation BEAR) turboprop heavy bombers during the invasion of Afghanistan.

In the next few months Uzbekistan will conduct joint exercises with the Russian military in the biggest maneuvers since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

Something for The President to worry about in Crawford, when his attention is deflected from theose damned mothers bleating about their dead sons at his gates.