Kyrgyzstan Withdraws From Hosting Russian-Led Military Exercises Amid Border Tensions With Tajikistan
Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov grants interviews to journalists at the entrance to the parliament in downtown Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on January 6. (Photo: Igor Kovalenko/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
“Indestructible Brotherhood-2022” was the name of the joint military exercises Russia was to hold with five of its close allies in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan this week.
Instead, the host country, Kyrgyzstan, canceled the exercises, which were due to take place from October 10 to 14, one day before they were to start.
“Where is the ‘indestructible brotherhood’ when our villages are being attacked by a fellow [de la alianza]?” Edil Baisalov, Kyrgyzstan’s deputy prime minister, said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, referring to recent attacks he says were carried out by Tajikistan.
A bit of context: Kyrgyzstan accused Tajikistan, another Russian ally and member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization military alliance, of launching a deadly cross-border attack in September that killed 63 Kyrgyz citizens and displaced more than 140,000 people.
“How can we welcome Tajik troops to participate in exercises on our territory?” Baisalov said.
The Tajik government accused Kyrgyzstan of triggering cross-border hostilities on September 16.
Although the leaders of both countries were invited to a meeting organized by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of his 70th birthday last week, only Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon attended, along with several other leaders of former Soviet republics. .
Putin awarded Rahmon the “Order of Merit for the Fatherland” for “ensuring regional stability and security”, a gesture that was ridiculed in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan’s deputy prime minister suggested that Russia’s war in Ukraine had distracted Moscow from being a guarantor of peace and security in former Soviet Central Asia.
“We know that [los rusos] they have enough problems elsewhere, but that’s what they’re a superpower for,” Baisalov told CNN. “If they’re a superpower they should be able to pay attention to all geographic areas of responsibility.”
Kyrgyzstan, along with Tajikistan, has publicly remained neutral regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.