US officials say considering cooperative measures with Russia on Kyrgyzstan unrest
By APThursday, April 8, 2010
US Russia considering cooperation on Kyrgyzstan
PRAGUE — U.S. officials said Thursday they’re working closely with Russia to respond to the uprising in Kyrgyzstan despite previous conflict over a military base in the Central Asian nation.
President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the issue before signing an arms treaty in Prague, U.S. officials told reporters later.
Michael McFaul, Obama’s senior director for Russian affairs, emphasized that the U.S. did not view the conflict as any kind of proxy struggle between the U.S. and Russia, even though Russia previously tried to lay claim to an air base in the country that the U.S. obtained from the regime now under assault.
The status of the Manas U.S. air base, a supply line to the war in Afghanistan, is now uncertain with a bloody uprising overtaking the Kyrgyzstan capital and the opposition forming an interim government.
“The people that are allegedly running Kyrgyzstan … these are all people we’ve had contact with for many years,” McFaul said. “This is not some anti-American coup, that we know for sure. And this is not some sponsored-by-the-Russians coup, there’s just no evidence of that.”
U.S. troops working at Manas base have been restricted to the facility outside the capital of Bishkek, with humanitarian missions and other trips temporarily suspended, Manas air field spokesman Maj. Rickardo Bodden said Thursday. The facility is an important transit point for NATO troops and supplies flying in and out of Afghanistan and those flights have been cut back.
McFaul presented the cooperation over Kyrgyzstan as another sign of improved U.S.-Russia relations. He said Medvedev initiated the discussion with Obama.
McFaul said there was no specific decision on how the two nations might respond, though he raised the prospect of a cooperative measure such a joint statement.
“We’re trying to keep the peace right now,” McFaul said.
“We talked in general terms of things we’ve got to coordinate.”
