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Senator assures all conditions created for operation of Russian base in Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, July 3. /TASS/. Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev stresses the importance of the presence of the Russian base Kant in the republic, there are no grounds to change attitudes towards the base, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko said on Monday after talks with Atambayev.

"All conditions for the operation of our base have been created and there are no grounds to any other actions," she said.

"On the contrary, he [Atambayev] stressed the importance of the Russian base’s presence as it guarantees stability in the region, in Kyrgyzstan in particular, bearing in mind the developments that took place here," she stressed.

Addressing a news conference in December 2016, Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev said that his country should "rely on its own armed forces rather than on armies of other states." At the same time, he stressed that Kyrgyzstan and Russia "will always be strategic partners."

Later, his press secretary said that Kyrgyzstan and Russia had reached an agreement to reduce the term of the Russian base’s deployment in Kyrgyzstan’s territory from 49 to 15 years, i.e. till 2031.

In February 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russian was ready to close the Kant base in case Kyrgyzstan lo longer needed Russia’s assistance. He stressed that the only goal of the Russian base’s presence in Kyrgyzstan was to "ensure security of Kyrgyzstan."

The Russian military base Kant is subordinated to the Central Military District. It is a component of collective rapid response force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and takes part in ensuring security of CSTO member states’ airspace.