According to a recent interview with newly re-elected President Bakiev, Russia is interested in building another military installation in Kyrgyzstan.  Not a base, per se, but a training center to help combat regional terrorism.  Central Asia is the northern neighbor of Afghanistan and its long history of Islamic fundamentalism-fueled extremism.

It is worth noting that Russia’s ambivalence towards United States military build-up in Afghanistan might be based in a fear of a Central Asian domino effect.  If some force, external or domestic, united Central Asia’s Muslim populations, it would be possible for Russia’s own growing Muslim minority to act in sympathy with their southern brethren.

Most interesting is the opinion stated by Bakiev:

“The Afghanistan situation is affecting not only Kyrgyzstan but Central Asia as a whole and, frankly, the entire world,” he said. “People have come here to carry out acts of terror.”

While the Global War on Terror might have temporarily solidified a very difuse mixture of cultures and countries, this statement makes it clear that the perspectives are still very different.  The average American or Western opinion would seem to be the opposite of Bakiev’s.  In other words, it is not that Afghanistan and Central Asia are under attack by terrorists, but that terrorists from Afghanistan and Central Asia have taken their native troubles abroad with bombings in Europe and the horrible events of September 11th, 2001.

Medvedev and others in Russia have yet to respond or comment on Bakiev’s public mention of their plans for military buildup in Kyrgyzstan.  Bakiev is between a rock and a hard place, and will never totally enter one side’s sphere of influence, but continue to play the two off each other.  For those same reasons, any deals made with the United States are quickly reported in Russian media.  Kyrgyzstan stays afloat by keeping in the relative good graces of one or both of the world powers.