EurasiaNet.org reports that Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has said that Russia needs to leave its air base that it operates in Kyrgyzstan.
Atambayev reportedly made the comments during a four-hour press conference on December 1. “In the future, Kyrgyzstan should rely only on its own forces. This has to do with the Russian base. Everyone criticizes me — Atambayev kicked out the American base and left the Russian one. Keep in mind that there was an agreement on the Russian base, signed on our side by [former president Kurmanbek] Bakiyev, under which … the military base was supposed to stay for 49 years and then be extended for 25 more. We left it only for 15 years.”
Atambayev was referring to an agreement signed in 2012 which consolidated Russian control over the several military facilities it operates in Kyrgyzstan. That includes the air base at Kant, not far from the capital Bishkek, which Russia set up in 2003 and which today acts as the Central Asian hub for the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The next year, Kyrgyzstan refused to renew the agreement it had with the United States over the American air base also near Bishkek, and the Americans left the following year.
Atambayev further continued that Kyrgyzstan would always be strategic partner with Russia, “but Kyrgyzstan should rely and depend only on its own armed forces and not on a Russian, American, or any other country's base.”
Atambayev has made similar comments in the past. In 2012, he said Kyrgyzstan “doesn't need a Russian base.” In 2015, he said: “We have a long term agreement, but sooner or later in the future Kyrgyzstan will have to defend itself, without relying on the bases of brotherly friendly countries.”
Atambayev's comments prompted several veiled threats from Moscow.
"If the president of Kyrgyzstan doesn't need a Russian base, then he should be ready to face alone the terrorist threat, the Taliban — they're walking around nearby," said Vladimir Dzhabarov, the deputy head of the Russian Duma foreign affairs committee.
Russian Central Asia pundit Andrey Grozin noted that the base will outlast Atambayev: “Kyrgyzstan will hold presidential elections in 2017. Who will replace Atambayev is the big question, in which the citizens of Kyrgyzstan are interested more than in other issues, even such important as the situation with the future of Russian military facilities. Atambayev himself can't be re-elected. This is connected not only with constitutional prohibitions, but also with the fact that the process of preparing for the next elections in all political fields of Kyrgyzstan has gone so far that simply no one will let him to do this. A new president will form new relations, including issues related to security," Grozin said.
"These objects remain simply because [Kyrgyzstan] needs it much more than Russia. Russia needs them only to maintain stability on its southern borders. And Kyrgyzstan needs them to survive in the possible very serious cataclysms," Grozin added.
There is no indication that Atambayev has any intention of kicking Russia out of Kant before 2027.
