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, Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily reported.
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 without urgent need”.
However, Uzbek diplomats and Russian Defense Ministry officials neither confirmed nor dismissed the report, but a military source that wished to remain anonymous said in an interview with the daily that Russian troops will oversee the handover of Karshi-Khanabad airbase that has been used by the U.S. since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime, which was accused of harboring al Qaeda.
“Americans expected they would stay there forever, and were setting aside a lot of funds for the base infrastructure. Our task is to make them hand the aerodrome — the runway, communications and watch facilities — over to Uzbekistan upkeep,” the source said.
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 had to rush to the country 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.
Khanabad used to be the second-largest airbase in the Soviet Union, hosting strategic Tu-22MZ planes and Tu-95 heavy bombers during the invasion into Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan has imposed new limits on the U.S. use of its Karshi-Khanabad air base, after Washington criticized Uzbekistan’s bloody crackdown on anti-government rioting in May that killed around 200 people according to the official toll, though human rights activists say up to 750 died.
Shortly afterwards 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.
No official requests concerning base withdrawal, however, have been voiced by the Uzbek government so far.
Russia may take over U.S. Uzbek airbase
Uzbekistan has demanded that the U.S. vacate its Karshi-Khanabad air base within 180 days. Rossiiskaiia Gazeta reports that it is possible that the base and its infrastructure may be subsequently leased to Russia.
The Pentagon paid Uzbekistan's million dollars annually to use Karshi-Khanabad, and obviously was planning to be there for a long time. The Pentagon restored the old airfield from the ground up, investing several dozen million dollars in upgrading the old soviet airfield's infrastructure.
After the May 13 shootings in Andijan, Uzbek-U.S. relations nose-dived, with the Bush administration subsequently supporting an independent international inquiry into the Andijan tragedy, while Moscow and Beijing firmly supported the Karimov administration's version of events.
Karimov rejected demands for an international inquiry and on July 29 formally gave the U.S. 180 days to evacuate the facility. In the short term the closure of the Karshi-Khanabad air base, loss of jobs and U.S. money will damage the Uzbek economy.
Shortly before Karimov evicted the U.S. he paid a visit to Beijing, which offered Uzbekistan .5 billion in credit. The Chinese offer however is transparently designed to access to Uzbekistan's oil and gas resources.
In early July Moscow and Beijing initiated a discussion of U.S. military bases in Central Asia at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which subsequently issued a statement questioning the continued U.S. military presence in Central Asia.
Analysts now speculate that Moscow might take over the Karshi-Khanabad base. 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.
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
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