Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and the Reset
John Lough, an associate fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House in London, has a very insightful piece on Russia’s play in Kyrgyzstan in the Moscow Times:
Rather than fighting over the long-term future of the Manas base, Russia and the United States may now need each other in this very dangerous situation. Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have already made it clear that Washington should not regard its base at Manas as permanent, but neither the United States nor Russia has an interest in seeing Kyrgyzstan break apart, risking destabilization across Central Asia.