A Rússia a conquistar o espaço de influência perdido

Earlier on Saturday, a senior Kyrgyz official told AFP that Kyrgyzstan will order the closure of a US military airbase used to support operations in Afghanistan "in a matter of days" in exchange for a loan from Russia.
Russia, which also operates a military airbase in Kyrgyzstan, saw the arrival of U.S. forces as a Washington attempt to squeeze Russian influence in the ex-Soviet region.
The official said Russia had urged Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to announce the closure of the base in exchange for financial help to the cash-strapped Central Asian nation, AFP reported.
Russian media have separately reported that Bakiyev would announce the closure of the U.S. base ahead of his planned visit to Moscow next month. The Kyrgyz government has not officially commented on the matter.
Russian officials have discussed extending Kyrgyzstan a 300-million-dollar (225-million-euro) loan as well as 1.7 billion dollars of investment in the energy sector of the ex-Soviet republic, the report added.
"In exchange for such a large loan the Kremlin asked Bakiyev to voice the decision about the pull-out of the US airbase from Kyrgyzstan before his official visit to Moscow," the official said.
Bakiyev's press service has said he will visit Moscow on February 3.

Já aqui se referira a perda da base norte-americana no Quirguistão, importante pelo combate ao terrorismo exportado pelo vizinho Afeganistão.
Afinal, Moscovo estava por trás desta decisão de Bishkek encerrar a base dos EUA. Aos poucos, e com os milhões da energia, Moscovo vai fidelizando as antigas repúblicas soviéticas da Ásia central. Há três anos referira-se, aqui e aqui, essa nova projecção do poder russo na Ásia Central, como um dos eixos do resurgir russo no mundo.