MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on an agreement between Russia and Kyrgyzstan on the status of and the deployment conditions for a Russian airbase in Kyrgyzstan, the presidential press service said. The agreement was ratified by the State Duma, parliament's lower chamber, on July 8 and approved by the Federation Council, parliament's upper chamber, on July 13.
The Kant base, located 30km to the east of Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, has a former Soviet military airfield and training facility, taken over by Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet Union in 1992.
The Russian-Kyrgyz agreement, signed in September 2003, stipulates that the base is part of the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Russia has deployed about 500 military servicemen and several Su-27 Flanker fighters and Mi-8 helicopters to the base.
The U.S. military base at Manas, at the Kyrgyz capital's international airport, is a strongpoint in conducting the counter terrorist operation in Afghanistan. At the July SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana, Putin's proposal to set a deadline for foreign military withdrawal in Central Asia was unanimously approved by SCO members.
