It appears that the Great Game continues in Central Asia. We’ve discussed Russian efforts here, here, here and here to control our supply lines to Afghanistan, including bribing Kyrgyzstan to shut down Manas AFB. The Russians promised the Kyrgyzs a couple billion in assistance and it seemed the squeeze play was complete.
But it now appears that those pesky Kyrgyzs just won’t stay bought. Apparently the U.S. is still ‘negotiating’ to remain at Manas after all and the Russians don’t like it one bit. And just by coincidence, Rossia TV just released a documentary alleging that the U.S. is using Manas to spy on both Russia and China. From Reuters, via the Moscow Times:
Rossia state television aired a documentary Sunday that accused the United States of using its only remaining air base in Central Asia as cover for a large-scale spying operation.
The documentary — made by the same journalist who accused Britain of using fake rocks to spy in Moscow in 2006 — purportedly shows how the United States ran intelligence operations from the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan, which is used for supplying foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan told Washington in February to close the air base after it secured a $2 billion economic aid package from Russia, a setback for the United States as it seeks new supply routes.
“Eight years ago, under the pretext of the war in Afghanistan, the United States opened its air base at the Manas airport,” Rossia said in a statement released ahead of the broadcast. “But this was only the start. Subsequently, the Americans in Kyrgyzstan launched a wide-scale intelligence operation.”
A U.S. defense official dismissed the allegations as ridiculous and noted that the TV report surfaced just as U.S. and Kyrgyz officials resumed dialogue over the base’s future. .
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said U.S. and Kyrgyz representatives resumed talks last week. He gave no details.
As to the accusations, it wouldn’t surprise me. It’s an ideal place to conduct signals intelligence and special operators doubtless fly in and out of Manas, even though they might not be based there. For instance, the Navy’s Special Projects Patrol Squadron 1 (VPU-1) has been based at Bagram in Afgahnistan for some time, flying the P-3 ‘Reef Point’ variant of the venerable Orion. The whole area is probably crawling with spooks and I’d be willing to bet that the Russians have at least ten there for every one of ours.
It’s all part of the Great Game. Thus has it always been, Russian protests to the contrary.
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