Russian Military Bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

GarryB wrote:To be fair though Sean... the US does like launching airstrikes and a damaged aircraft or an aircraft that has used too much fuel might think it can divert to Manas because of the US use of the base...

Look at a map. Anything you launch at Iran won't ever be diverting anywhere near Manas.

GarryB wrote:Does anyone know what aircraft they have at the Russian air base there?

I seem to recall an Su-27 detachment at one point.

Russia, Kyrgyzstan Clash Over Torpedo Plant

RIA Novosti

16:56 22/03/2012 MOSCOW, March 22 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow and Bishkek are in a deadlock over the swap of the controlling stake in the Dastan torpedo plant for a write-off of the Kyrgyz debt to Russia, Kommersant daily said on Thursday.

Russia has long had its eye on the most significant piece of Kyrgyzstan's defense industry, which produces the advanced VA-111 Shkval torpedoes used by the Russian Navy. The Shkval torpedo and its descendants are supercavitating torpedoes developed by the Soviet Union. They are capable of speeds in excess of 200knots (370 km/h).

Moscow agreed in 2008 to write off Kyrgyzstan's $180 million debt in exchange for a 48 percent stake in the plant. The swap deal was developed in 2009 under the then Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Bakiyev’s regime was overthrown in 2010, but the new Kyrgyz authorities vowed to meet their commitments on Dastan.

In 2011, Kyrgyzstan tried to revive the swap with Russia, but the deal never materialized.

Russia is now asking for a 75 percent-stake in the torpedo plant, citing the depreciation of its equipment, or says it is willing to write-off a lesser share of the Kyrgyz debt for the previously agreed 48 percent stake in Dastan..

“Bishkek has been offered to either a write off a lesser debt for the same assets or to increase the stake transferred to Russia,” Kommersant said, citing a Russian government source.

The Kyrgyz government, which owns an 80 percent stake in the plant, rejects Russia's claims of equipment depreciation and insists the previous agreement must be honored.

Bakiyev's successor, Almazbek Atanbayev, has said the new deal will be possible only if Russia pays a "real market price" for the remaining 27 percent of the stake.

The clash over the plant deal is the latest in a series of issues causing a souring of relations between Moscow and Bishkek, Kommersant said.

During his visit to Moscow in February, Atambayev criticized Russia for not paying the rent for its military base in Kant and questioned the rationality of allowing Moscow to keep a base on Kyrgyz territory.


http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2012/03/mil-120322-rianovosti01.htm

Tajikistan accepts Russian version of agreement on military base

Tajikistan has accepted the Russian version of an agreement on the deployment of Russia’s military base 201 in Tajikistan after 2014.
This came in a statement by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, General Vladimir Chirkin.
Under the agreement, the military facility will remain in Tajikistan without compensation for 49 years.
Russia’s base 201 is the biggest outside Russia and a most powerful military force in Central Asia. Some 7,000 servicemen are deployed there.
Moscow and Dushanbe have said they will sign the agreement on the prolongation of the term of base deployment in Tajikistan before the end of the year.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_17/Tajikistan-accepts-Russian-version-of-agreement-on-military-base/

Good. IF these nations want exorbitant sums for Russian bases (bases that can be of great help to them btw) then Russia should just shrug and leave.

TR1 wrote:Good. IF these nations want exorbitant sums for Russian bases (bases that can be of great help to them btw) then Russia should just shrug and leave.

Kyrgyzstan for sure ... honestly , while Tajikistan is questionable due to drug trafficking.

© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Klementiev
19:37 05/10/2012
DUSHANBE/MOSCOW, October 5 (Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti)
Tags: Emomali Rahmon, Vladimir Putin, Tajikistan, Dushanbe, Russia

Russia won a 30-year deal on a military base in Tajikistan, but the price includes risk of placing Russian servicemen under fire if violence flares up in volatile Central Asia.

Moscow and Dushanbe clinched an agreement on Friday on a Russian military base in Tajikistan, which will remain in the country until at least 2042, a Russian presidential aide said.

The agreement, which followed months of haggling, is a success for Russian diplomacy, Russian and Western analysts said.

But it also means that Russia agrees to use military force to maintain peace in Central Asia, a region that is set to grow much more turbulent after the US forces pull out of Afghanistan in 2014, pundits said.

The deal was sealed during a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, Putin’s aide, Yury Ushakov, said.

The current agreement on the base was set to expire in 2014, but was prolonged for 30 years, with the option of repeatedly extending it for five years after that date, Ushakov said. Russia sought to extend the deal for 49 years, while Tajikistan wanted to limit it to 10 years.

Media reports said earlier Tajikistan wanted $250 million a year to host the base, which hosts 7,000 troops across three locations. But Ushakov said on Friday that Russia would get the base “almost free of charge.” He gave no further details.

The Taliban Are Coming

Destabilization is imminent in Central Asia after US troops’ pullout from Afghanistan, analysts said.

The Taliban is hoping to return to power in Afghanistan or at least increase their influence, which would likely resonate throughout the region, said Alexander Knyazev from the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Tensions between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are also riding high due to the conflict over the Rogun Dam, which is in the works in Tajikistan, he said.

The situation inside Tajikistan is shaky as well, as evidenced by a recent spate of violence in the Gorno-Badakhshan province, where the government failed to suppress a rebellion by a local warlord in July and had to negotiate, said Vladimir Bartenev, head of the Center for Security and Development Studies at the Moscow State University.

The Russian base is crucial in this regard, with 7,000 highly qualified troops keeping hotheads all across the region from rash armed action, Knyazev said.

But they may be in for some serious testing by the Taliban, said Paul Quinn-Judge, an expert on Central Asia at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based watchdog.

The extent of havoc that the Islamists will be able to wreak across Central Asia after 2014 is hard to evaluate in advance, Quinn-Judge conceded.

But it is at least “conceivable” that the Russian troops in Tajikistan would even be required to conduct operations in northern Afghanistan, returning to the country for the first time after the lost Afghan war of 1979-1989, he said.

“Russia would be expected to protect Tajikistan now…and the risk would grow after 2014,” Quinn-Judge said.

Base Haggling

The US deadline of 2014 made it imperative that the Russia prolong the base deal, set to expire the same year, experts said.

The cordial accord on Friday, however, was preceded by a year of tense negotiations, with the deadline for the deal’s signing repeatedly pushed back. Just last week, the commander of the Russian Ground Forces, Vladimir Chirkin, predicted that the agreement prolonging Russian troops’ stay in Tajikistan would not be sealed until summer 2013.

“Tajik authorities acted as if they were at a bazaar,” said Knyazev of the Institute of Oriental Studies.

The deal was accompanied by a set of other agreements, including Russia’s pledge to extend residency and work permits for Tajik nationals. Money sent home from Russia by the 1.1 million Tajik workers in the country amounted to $3 billion in 2011, making up around half of the impoverished republic’s GDP, Putin’s aide Ushakov said.

Russia would also step up cooperation with Tajikistan on combatting illegal drugs, giving Dushanbe $5 million to the purpose.

Moscow is also “considering” involvement in Tajikistan’s plans to build a set of hydro power plants on the country’s interior rivers, Putin said after talks with Rahmon. He did not elaborate.

Tajikistan is building the 335-meter-high Rogun Dam on the Vakhsh River. The project was lambasted by neighboring Uzbekistan, which fears the dam would decrease its supply of drinking water, a precious commodity in arid Central Asia.

The package deal on migration, anti-drug campaigning and energy indicated that Russian diplomacy finally learned to use economic incentives to accomplish its goals, said Bartenev of the Center for Security and Development Studies.

What Would the Neighbors Think

Moscow clinched last month a similar deal with Kyrgyzstan, which will host a Russian military base though at least 2032, writing off $500 million of Kyrgyz debts in exchange. The Central Asian republic also houses a US military base, but it is set to be closed by 2014.

Speeding the Tajik deal was important for Putin, who is very conscious of Russia’s image in the West and sees Central Asia, a zone of Russia’s alleged “privileged interests,” as a means of boosting Moscow’s international prestige, Quinn-Judge said.

But at the same time, the deal with Dushanbe is bound to irk Uzbekistan, an aspiring regional power which has been leaning toward the United States in recent months, Knyazev said.

A delegation of 17 America senior military officials is touring Uzbekistan this week, adding weight to reports that the United States plan to set up a transit base in the country to aid the pullout of its forces from Afghanistan.

“You can’t exchange a queen for two pawns,” Knyazev said, referring to Russia’s deals with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan at the expense of Uzbekistan. “But I hope Putin is just sounding off on the situation before beginning dialogue with [Uzbekistan's capital] Tashkent.”

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121005/176424262.html

Russia begins military drills in Tajikistan

DUSHANBE, October 6. /TASS/. Over 1,000 servicemen from 201st Russian military base headquartered in Tajikistan are participating in tactical war games with fire drills which began on Monday. “Motor rifle, tank, reconnaissance, artillery units and more than 300 units of military hardware are involved in military exercises,” spokesman of the Central Military District Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin told TASS.
The 201st base is the largest Russian military inland facility outside the country.

The military base numbers six thousand servicemen stationed in garrisons on the outskirts of Tajik cities of Dushanbe, Kurgan-Tyube and Kulyab. According to the treaty signed in October 2012 the 201st military base will be deployed in Tajikistan at least until 2042.

The Russian Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan is reinforced with five upgraded Su-25SM

The officers of the 201st Russian military base in Tajikistan have started to prepare for the Army tank armies of the Central Asian republic.

http://tvzvezda.ru/news/forces/content/201502171001-sn92.htm

Russian base in Tajikistan would receive more than 100 new BTR-82A

Russia holds large-scale military drills in Tajikistan

Units of the 201st military base of the Russian Defense Ministry practised anti-terrorist operations

DUSHANBE, April 29. /TASS/. Russia has held a large-scale military exercise 20 kilometers away from Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe. Units of the 201st military base of the Russian Defense Ministry practised anti-terrorist operations, an aide to the commander of the Central Military District, Yaroslav Roshchupkin, told TASS.

"The 201st military base has carried out a terrain exercise to practice the search for and seizure of a base camp of militants in the mountains," Roshchupkin said. Drones were employed.

The Russian military base in Tajikistan is the largest Russian ground force outside the national territory. Up to 2020 its combat strength will increase to 9,000 men from 7,000

Russia, Kyrgyzstan holding military drills

The drills will see the landing operation of the Russian paratroopers and Kyrgyzstan’s National Guard and skill training in the mountainous areas, the official said

BISHKEK, May 25. /TASS/. Kyrgyzstan begins on Monday joint military exercises with Russia that involve 250 Russian paratroopers and servicemen of Kyrgyzstan’s National Guard.

Six aircraft were used to transfer the units of Russia’s Airborne Forces.

"The exercises will last until June 5 and part of them will be held on territory of the fifth brigade of Kyrgyzstan’s National Guard, while the other on the Russian air base in Kant [Chuy region in Kyrgyzstan]," an official at the air base in Kant said.

The drills will see the landing operation of the Russian paratroopers and Kyrgyzstan’s National Guard and skill training in the mountainous areas, the official said.

The military chiefs of the two states reached an agreement on holding the exercises a month ago.

The Russian air base in Kant was opened in 2003 and serves as an air component of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

The air base is located some 20 kilometers from the capital Bishkek. Su-25 attack aircraft, Il-76 transport aircraft and helicopters of the 5th Urals Army of the Air Force and Air Defence are based there.

The latest major exercises with the participation of the Russian paratroopers were held in September 2014. The Vostok command and staff maneuvers involved more than 155,000 soldiers from the forces of the Central and Eastern districts, Airborne Forces, Air Defence, Long-Range Aviation and Military and Transport aviation.

Russia Holds Drone Drills in Tajikistan Mountains

The Russian military participates in military exercises with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in Central Asian Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian military is conducting drills with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in Central Asian Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains amid a surge in Taliban activity on the Tajik-Afghan border, the Eastern Military District's press service said Monday.

In April, the Taliban launched a large-scale offensive in Kunduz, an Afghan province bordering Tajikistan. Taliban attacks prompted Tajik authorities to strengthen its border with Afghanistan and stage military drills.

"During the flights, the methods of interaction with Tajikistan's Defense Ministry units, motorized infantry actions in blocking and elimination of illegal armed groups, combing of adverse terrain, as well as operation of UAVs in the conditions of high temperatures and thin air were practiced," the press service said in a statement.

Earlier in May, a joint rapid-response force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), including Russia, Tajikistan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, among others, carried out large-scale anti-terrorism drills in Tajikistan.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150525/1022526933.html#ixzz3bBFAvv1p

Kyrgyz-Russian military drills to enter active phase June 2

According to the deputy commander of Russia’s Central Military District, it is the first ever exercise of such a large scale conducted by the two states

BISHKEK, May 29. /TASS/. The active phase of the Russian-Kyrgyz maneuvers that are underway in Kyrgyzstan will begin on June 2, the press service of the Russian Air Force Base in Kant (Kyrgyzstan’s Chui Province) told TASS on Friday. The base’s equipment and personnel are also engaged in the exercise.

"During the active phase, Russian paratroopers and military of the National Guard of Kyrgyzstan will launch a landing operation to a specified area form our base’s airdrome," the press service said. "Then they will be airlifted by helicopter to the National Guard’s Edelweiss training center for a building storming drill." In addition, in the coming days they will conduct mountainous terrain drills in the Tatyr gorge located on the northern slope of Ala-Too ridge. According to the press service, the Kyrgyz and Russian troops have previously held several tactical and special exercises, including the range practice during which they fired all types of small arms, launched drones and had parachute packing drills.

The joint training exercise of the paratroopers and National Guard fighters was launched on May 25 and will continue until June 5. According to deputy commander of Russia’s Central Military District Yevgeny Ustinov, it is the first ever exercise of such a large scale conducted by the two states, "with the arrival of the troops contingent." "The maneuvers are conducted quite successfully," he said. "The military are gaining interaction experience." However, according to Ustinov, only preliminary conclusions can now be made on the joint exercise, and the final results will be known after the maneuvers are over and their "detailed analysis."

Ustinov said previously that "the main task is to study each other’s experience." Ustinov said that during the war games the two states’ troops would improve their weapons and reconnaissance training, including with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. "We hope that the next joint exercise will take place in Russia’s territory," said the deputy commander. He said that several Russian military facilities are located in Kyrgyzstan. "Therefore, if the situation aggravates, we, jointly with our colleagues from Kyrgyzstan must be ready to ensure their security," he added.

Russia’s Kant airbase pilots to deliver strikes against simulated gunmen in Kyrgyzstan

The drill feature Sukhoi Su-25SM attack aircraft and Mil Mi-8 (Hip) helicopters

MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS). Russia’s attack aircraft and helicopters will deliver strikes against simulated militants in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan as part of the drills at the Russian Kant air base, assistant to the Central Military District Commander, Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin said on Monday.

The drills of Sukhoi Su-25SM attack aircraft (NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) and Mil Mi-8 (Hip) helicopters started at the Russian Kant airbase in Kyrgyzstan on Monday.

"According to the plan of the drills, the crews of Su-25SM attack aircraft and Mi-8 helicopters will practise searching for camouflaged ground objectives with the help of air data recorders in flights at low altitudes and destroying highly mobile groups of simulated armed formations operating in the highly mountainous terrain," the assistant said.

Russian instructors to train specialists for the army of Tajikistan

George1 wrote:Teachings of Russian anti-aircraft gunners held in Tajikistan

What are the Taliban shooting suicide bombers out of a cannon now?

Developing partnership with Russia in line with Tajikistan’s interests — FM

DUSHANBE, July 23. /TASS/. Tajikistan will continue developing partner relations with Russia, its strategic ally, as it meets the country’s vital interests, Foreign Minister Sirodzhidin Aslov wrote in an article published in the People’s Newspaper on Thursday.

Speaking about Aslov’s article titled "Defining document for Tajikistan’s foreign policy", foreign ministry spokesman Abulfaiz Atoev told TASS that "the article provides detailed and clear comments to the main provisions of Tajikistan’s new foreign policy doctrine that was adopted after a wide discussion between appropriate structures and the country’s President Emomali Rahmon."

"The emphasis is put on developing friendly relations and strategic partnership with the Russian Federation in political, military, economic spheres, and also in trade, investment, labor migration, culture, information, science, education and so on," Aslov wrote. "People in Tajikistan are confident that developing new partnership relations with our strategic ally is in line with national interests of our republic," he noted.