Russia is ready to withdraw its airbase from Kyrgyzstan at any time

Bishkek, Feb. 28 / Kabar /. Russia is ready to withdraw its airbase from Kyrgyzstan at any time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said here in Bishkek during a joint press conference answering the questions of journalists. At first Putin gave explanation about how the Russian base was established at Kant. “It was established at the request of the Kyrgyzstani authorities in 1999–2000, when Kyrgyzstan had to fend off the attacks of terrorists who entered the country from Afghanistan. At that time, the then Kyrgyzstani authorities asked me personally to deploy a Russian military group, primarily aircraft, in order to effectively fight against the terrorist threat. As you remember, there were also tragedies, people were killed, and neighbouring countries sent in their aircraft. But the Kyrgyzstani authorities concluded that if a permanent group of forces were deployed in their country who would know the situation, hold military exercises and use the army and aviation if and when necessary, these should be highly professional forces that would act in strict coordination with the Kyrgyzstani partners. This is why our base was established here,” he said. President Putin said that when Kyrgyzstan decides that it has strengthened its armed forces so that it no longer needs this base, they will pull out immediately. “There is no need for us to have a military group here. It is here solely to protect the security of Kyrgyzstan. Now that we are developing our relations within the CSTO framework, we will continue to strengthen the armed forces of Kyrgyzstan, as Mr President has said. We talked about this today, and it was not the first time we did. We will work calmly and consistently on this at the CSTO expert group,” he said. http://kabar.kg/eng/news/russia-is-ready-to-withdraw-its-airbase-from-kyrgyzstan-at-any-time/