With a mounting death toll, an Uzbek refugee exodus of unmanageable proportions, and fears that the strategic route for NATO supplies to Afghanistan will be disrupted, international attention has been rapidly drawn to the question of how to quell the violence raging in Kyrgyzstan.  The Kremlin’s non-committal reaction has, this article in the FT suggests, prompted the Kyrgyzstan government to consider reviewing the existence of the US Manas airbase, an irksome presence for Russia in its former satellite state, as leverage to secure intervention from the Kremlin:

Ruslan Kazakpaev, Kyrgyzstan’s interim foreign minister, said the government might review the decision to extend the US lease on the base after parliamentary elections in October this year, emphasising that the current agreement was concluded by the government of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in a violent coup in April.
“It’s possible, that the question might be looked at by the new parliament after its formation, but until then, Kyrgyzstan will fulfil its international obligations,” he said, adding: “The Russian Federation was and remains the main strategic partner for Kyrygzstan.”

Mr Kazakpaev’s comments will harden speculation that Russia may be holding out for some sort of commitment to close the US base as a condition for its stepping in to put an end to the ethnic violence in the country’s south, in which more than 170 people have died so far.