MOSCOW. Jan 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry takes the view that the presence of troops of the anti-terrorist coalition led by the U.S. in Central Asian states is the internal affair of each of these countries.
"This is a purely internal affair of each of these sovereign states. Foreign troops will probably stay in their territory for some time," Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Yuri Baluyevsky has said.
"The Americans have clearly stated that they will ask the governments of the Central Asian states to allow the deployment of American troops in their territories as long as the operation on eliminating international terrorist structures lasts," Baluyevsky said in a Monday interview with Interfax.
Touching on a possible timeframe for the presence of U.S. and allied troops in Central Asia, Baluyevsky noted, "It will definitely not be a month, I would say probably not even a year."
"Both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have quite a lot of problems. I think the presence of foreign military contingents in their territories will be defined and agreed upon within the framework of our relations with Americans and the leaderships of the Central Asian states," the general said.
The decisions to deploy the troops of the United States and their allies in the region "were coordinated in the framework of the CIS, Collective Security Treaty and personally on the level of leaders of Russia and the Central Asian states," Baluyevsky stressed.
According to him, the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan "has resulted in a certain stability in the region." "The main force of international terrorism is not destroyed at present, I would rather say it is scattered," he noted.
Baluyevsky said "neither Americans nor British will deploy military bases for long-term stationing in the territory of Afghanistan." "Protection of energy carriers' transportation through the territory of this nation is among the main conditions for their stationing in Afghanistan," he said.