#13
BBC Monitoring
Russia seeks to strengthen influence in Central Asia - Kazakh report
Source: Kazakh Television first channel, Astana, in Kazakh 1510 gmt 13 Jan 02
Russia seeks to strengthen its influence in Central Asia, Kazakh TV has suggested, commenting on Russia's activities in the light of the first meeting of the foreign ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in Beijing on 7 January and Russia's parliamentary delegation's visit to Kazakhstan between 8-11 January. Russia's delegation was led by Gennadiy Seleznev, the chairman of Russia's State Duma.
"Russian deputies said that they had arrived in Astana to strengthen [Kazakh-Russian] interparliamentary relations. However, conversations which took place during the visit revealed that they had some other ideas as well. Russia seems to be longing to restore its influence in Central Asia since Moscow has stepped its political activities in the region.
"We clearly noticed this at an extraordinary meeting of [the foreign ministers] of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] member states. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that the countries located beyond the boundaries of the region should not be involved in political affairs in Central Asia. Russia seems to have the idea of making use of the SCO in order to strengthen its influence in the region. Immediately after leaving Beijing, Igor Ivanov paid a visit to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The fact that he visited neutral Asgabat [capital of Turkmenistan], which is not involved in any military affairs and Tashkent [capital of Uzbekistan], which the USA is sympathizing with, sheds light on many things.
"The fact that Russia has stepped up its activities in order to strengthen its influence in Central Asia was also noticeable during a visit to our country by a delegation led by Gennadiy Seleznev. It is true that an exchange of ideas on strengthening the two countries' interparliamentary relations took place during the visit. However, in reality, conversations focused on a different issue. Since journalists were not allowed to attend some meetings, their results were not fully publicized. However, we heard the following from Seleznev. Seleznev said that Russia's parliament was ready to speed up the ratification of agreements on the military testing sites which Russia is leasing from our republic. Our neighbour wants to bring together the testing sites and strengthen the military management," the television said.
The report was broadcast in Kazakh TV's weekly round-up programme, "Mezgil" (Time), on 13 January.
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