On June 5 U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Kyrgyzstan to discuss the status of the U.S. military base in Bishkek with Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Kyrgyz Minister of Defense Ismail Isakov. In the past, treating the Kyrgyz-U.S. military cooperation as an important... MORE

Kyrgyzstan hosted joint command and staff exercises of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) May 29-31. “Issyk Kul Anti-Terror-2007” included elements from the regional anti-terror structure, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States anti-terror center, alongside security agencies and special services from Kyrgyzstan,... MORE

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conducted anti-terrorism training exercises in Kyrgyzstan May 28-31. The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is observing the SCO drills. Both the SCO and CSTO have overlapping memberships and competing goals. However, their interests meet in Kyrgyzstan, where they compete... MORE

The authorities in Kyrgyzstan increasingly favor the Collective Security Treaty Organization in general and the Russian air base at Kant in particular. This view is becoming more prevalent in the Kyrgyz media as well, downplaying the significance and the role played by the U.S. Ganci... MORE

Following the May 21 visit to Bishkek by Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) General Secretary Nikolai Bordyuzha, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev ordered the government to form a special commission to investigate the expediency of the U.S. military base at the Manas airport vis-à-vis Kyrgyzstan’s national... MORE

On May 16 Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev met a senior Russian military delegation led by Army General Vladimir Isakov, the Russian deputy defense minister and head of the Rear Services. The Kyrgyz were keen to highlight that this was the highest Russian military delegation... MORE

The December 6, 2006, killing of Kyrgyz truck driver Alexander Ivanov by U.S. soldier Zachary Hatfield continues to fuel Kyrgyz public anger toward the U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan. Hatfield left Kyrgyzstan on March 22 despite the Kyrgyz government’s appeal to keep the soldier on... MORE

On December 6, 2006, U.S. soldier Zachary Hatfield shot and killed 42-year-old Kyrgyz citizen Alexander Ivanov, a fuel truck driver, at the entry gate to the Manas airbase outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Subsequent U. S. intransigence about submitting Hatfield to the Kyrgyz justice system... MORE

During his April 26 visit to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev promised greater economic integration with Kyrgyzstan. The president, however, slammed his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev for the continuous political turmoil in that country. Along with his pledges to increase involvement in Kyrgyzstan’s key economic... MORE

Since the Kyrgyz government's crackdown on opposition rallies on April 19, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has embarked on a series of suppressive activities against unwanted political figures. The Kyrgyz security service arrested Omurbek Suvanaliyev, former minister of interior and the United Front opposition bloc’s key leader,... MORE