Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) at a meeting with Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev in Bishkek, August 15, 2007
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Putin at Shanghai Org. Meeting
Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, yesterday to attend the sixth summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. This summit has special meaning for him: it is likely to be the last one he attends as president of Russia. He will probably want to demonstrate that the SCO has, in his years there, turned into a powerful bloc capable of defending Russian interests from Western threats.
The Russian president's airplane touched down at Manas Airport yesterday evening. From there he went straight to Ala Archa, the Kyrgyz state residence, for private talks with the formal host of the summit, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev. The Putin was invited to a late supper, where he met with the other participants in the summit.
The current SCO summit undoubtedly has special meaning for Putin. In March 2008, he is to leave office and that means that Russia will be represented by his successor at the next SCO summit. The second president of Russia has made a significant contribution to the SCO. He was one of its founders in June 2001, transforming it from the “Shanghai Five” by including Uzbekistan in it. Its current form owes much to Putin. Thus, the meeting in Bishkek is to be a kind of last reckoning for him.
As in previous years, representatives of all the SCO member states spoke of how the organization is not directed against any third countries. Nonetheless, the organization looks every year more like a military-political bloc fighting the growing influence of the United States and NATO in Central Asia. At the 2005 summit in Astana, participants demanded that Washington set deadlines for the withdrawal of its military bases. This time, Bishkek is likely to make the same demand. Kyrgyz authorities began a campaign to expel the American Air Force bas from Manas Airport. Kommersant sources say that both Moscow and Beijing are pressuring the Kyrgyz to do that.
Moscow has been in favor of expanding the SCO for its entire existence. It particularly wants to see Iran join the organization. Although that has not happened (mainly because of the opposition of Beijing), Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was again invited to the summit and again intends to tell the other leaders about his ills. Apparently, he will speak about fighting American hegemony in the world, as he did last year at the summit in Beijing.
Also on the agenda is “a discussion of timely problems of regional and world security.” At the ministerial conferences held in Bishkek in preparation for the summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov made it quite clear what problem worried Moscow most of all: the U.S. missile defense along the Russian border. Putin and his delegation will be trying to convince other summit participants that the defense system is not just a headache for Moscow, but for all of them.
Thus, Russia is largely responsible for the summit's agenda. This evening, immediately after the official program of the summit is concluded, the Russian president will really become the main figure there as he takes the other leaders to the Russian military training ground at Chebarkul, where the final stage of the SCO Peace Mission 2007 exercise will take place with a scenario taken from events in Andijan. There, to the sounds of shooting and the explosions of allied weaponry, the ideal model for the SCO will be presented, a powerful anti-NATO that Moscow has been working on for all these years.
Alexander Gabuev
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 16, 2007
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