Russia angry at Kyrgyzstan's 'dirty trick': report

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2009

MOSCOW (AFP) — Kyrgyzstan played a "dirty trick" in deciding to let the United States keep using an airbase that Moscow wanted closed, a source in the Russian foreign ministry was quoted as saying.

The unnamed source, speaking to the Kommersant daily newspaper, vowed that Russia would make a "corresponding response" to the Central Asian country's decision on the Manas airbase.

On Tuesday, Kyrgyzstan announced it had signed an agreement with the United States allowing US personnel to keep using the airbase as a "transit centre" for the transport of non-lethal military goods to Afghanistan.

The agreement effectively reversed an earlier decision in which Kyrgyzstan had ordered the Manas airbase to close -- a decision that was widely believed to have been made under...