In February, the Kremlin gave Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev $500 million for a promise to close America's base in his country. Then the Americans offered Bakiyev $160 million a year, and now there may be no official base, but a "transit center" that serves the same functions. So the Kremlin paid out several hundred million dollars just to replace some signs.
Soon after this, Russian Vice Premier Igor Sechin and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov were sent to Bishkek in an effort to get something for Russia's money. Bakiyev seems to have said: So, you are worried about the American military presence in Central Asia, and you want to confront it. Fine, the Americans can have one base in Kyrgyzstan, and Russia can have two.
The resulting "military asset," however, is strategic gibberish, having been built in Kyrgyzstan's near-lawless Osh region, with its appalling poverty, drug trafficking, and ethnic tensions. Seizure of a Russian military base in order to acquire weapons is, indeed, likely to become a vital goal of "extremists." But, in a way, the Russian soldiers there are already hostages - not least to the Kremlin's bankrupt foreign policy.
"In February, the Kremlin gave Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev $500 million for a promise to close America's base in his country. "
Do you ever bother with details like evidence when you make assertions?
And did it ever enter your hear that the Kyrgyz had their own reasons for pressuring the USG?
"Do you ever bother with details like evidence when you make assertions?"
Is that a question for us, or for Golts? As for evidence, I suppose I would cite President Medvedev's announcement about the matter?
http://en.rian.ru/world/20090203/119963381.html
"And did it ever enter your hear that the Kyrgyz had their own reasons for pressuring the USG?"
Yes, it did enter our minds. We blogged about how clever Bakiyev was in hustling Washington with a critical base for operations in Afghanistan because he wanted to guarantee that they turn a blind eye to his rigged elections - which they did.
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2009/07/will_washington_turn_a_blind_eye_to_kyrgyzstan.htm
Um, Medvedev said nothing about manas in the piece you linked to.
So, is it a usual practice of yours to attribute stuff to Medvedev that he didn't say?