Russians Beg Troops
Kremlin’s bloody games in Kyrgyzstan
Kremlin’s bloody games in Kyrgyzstan
by Robert Callagan
Many insiders of Central Asian politics believe that Russia was behind the bloody ethnic cleansing against Uzbeks that took place in Kyrgyzstan in June 2010. Faced with the fierce geopolitical competition with the US and China in post Soviet space, Russia lacking adequate political and economic resources has been keen to exploit ethnic conflicts as the most efficient tool to sustain and expand its geopolitical presence in the CIS countries.
By Moscow’s scenario, after the eruption of violence in Kyrgyz cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad the neighbouring Uzbekistan was supposed to send a military force to protect ethnic Uzbeks which would lead to a full scale military clash between two states. Russia would use the opportunity to blame Uzbekistan in aggression and declare that it “had organised the massacre in order to attack Kyrgyzstan and occupy its southern territories”. This would be an ideal chance for Russia to punish Uzbekistan, who remains the main obstacle to Kremlin’s imperialistic policies in Central Asia.
Moscow would call for an immediate peacekeeping mission and send Russian troops to a conflict zone under the auspices Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), controlled by it. Thus Russia would be able to put the Fergana Valley and whole Central Asian region under its own military control. The situation would be similar to one in Nagorno-Karabakh, where Russia by manipulating the conflict keeps both Azerbaijan and Armenia under it tight geopolitical control.
Having in mind such considerations, in the first days of the bloodshed in southern Kyrgyzstan Russia rejected Kyrgyz authorities request to send troops to a conflict area. Kremlin hoped that the conflict will worsen and the international community will ask Moscow to take actions. “The New York Post” pointed that the Russian troops in Kyrgyzstan “will appear sooner or later, but not earlier, than the situation becomes even worse”. “Putin waits, while other Central Asian countries, which are participants of the CSTO, will start to beg him about assistance. Putin wants to serve all under legitimacy sauce, to create visibility of collective actions”, – the newspaper wrote.
The US also favoured sending peacekeepers but under the UN mandate. Barack Obama made it clear that “it is necessary, that any action on protection of civilians in Kyrgyzstan is realized under aegis and with the assistance of the international community, but not separately”.
Nevertheless, Moscow started “to carry out consultations” on sending “peacemakers” to Kyrgyzstan under the auspices of CSTO. But none of the CSTO countries accepted the idea. Russia had to send its own troops to northern Kyrgyzstan to “protect” its military and civilian objects.
Now Moscow is putting pressure on Kyrgyzstan to open a Russian military base in southern Kyrgyzstan, despite the fact that ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan came to an end. Kremlins puppet analysts are fiercely trying to justify that new military base is needed because “Islamic radicals”, “drug barons” and others may destabilise the situation and seize the power in Kyrgyzstan. These are the usual “horror stories” that Kremlin has been telling since the fall of Soviet Union in order to legitimise its imperialistic policies in Central Asia.
The Moscow’s strategy to initiate ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan in order to take control over Central Asia fell apart from the beginning primarily because Uzbekistan was very conscious of Kremlin’s plans and acted very responsibly during the ethnic bloodshed. Right from the beginning Uzbekistan declared the conflict was instigated by outside forces. Uzbekistan put all its efforts to stop and prevent a further expansion of brutal violence. It opened its borders to refugees from Kyrgyzstan, strictly controlled its borders to avoid cross border violence and prevented any sort of provocation against ethnic Kyrgyz living in Uzbekistan. These measures played a crucial role to stop massacre in Kyrgyzstan and minimise Russia’s or CSTO’s meddling into Kyrgyzstan.
But most importantly, Uzbekistan called for an independent international investigation of the conflict “in order to bring to trial all those who ordered, organized and executed bloody outrages”. This move was supported by the US and OSCE.
Uzbekistan’s systematic calls for international investigation are making Moscow extremely nervous, as it is worried that investigation may find “Russian hands” in the conflict. In order to block this initiative Kremlin is forcing Kyrgyz government to reject any international investigation. Instead Russian officials declared that CSTO will help Kyrgyz officials to find those who are responsible for the conflict. Kremlin has sent to Kyrgyzstan more than 50 Russian security service officers who will “take all measures” to justify Russian version of explanation to tragedy in Kyrgyzstan. Moscow has already succeeded to block another international initiative – stopped OSCE police mission entering to Kyrgyzstan.
Yet, Moscow still considers the present Kyrgyz government as unreliable. Kremlin is extensively meddling into election process in Kyrgyzstan to ensure that only loyal to Moscow political forces come to power. Russia’s president Dmitri Medvedev demonstratively met with pro-Russian Kyrgyz politician Felix Kulov, who stated that Kyrgyzstan should re-join Russia. Kulov also declared that his country needs a presidential form of governance, thus supporting the statement by president Medvedev made earlier. Analysts believe that if pro-Russian political forces lose the election, Kremlin may instigate another conflict in Kyrgyzstan in order to hide its role in recent ethnic conflict and bring the country under its colonial rule once again.
About the Author
Robert Callagan
The Georgian Army in South Ossetia