Russia will open a new base in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, later this year. Osh once hosted a Soviet airbase and is strategically located in the Ferghana Valley, extremely close to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The agreement will last for 49 years, to be renewed thereafter. All soldiers there will have diplomatic immunity, a courtesy not extended to the Americans. Also unlike the Americans, Russia is acting as security guarantor for the region, rather than a stop-over point.
And this is what Uzbekistan, and more distantly Belarus, is objecting to. According to a statementpublished by the Uzbek Foreign Ministry’s Jahon news agency, a second base in Kyrgyzstan could aggravate ethnic tensions (Osh has a significant Uzbek population) and provoke terrorism. Uzbekistan has long been trying to assert its own regional influence, and a significant increase in Russian military presence will be another obstacle to Uzbek influence over its neighbors.
