Kyrgyzstan–Russia relations

Russian President Boris Yeltsin made his first international trip to Kyrgyzstan after he was elected president in 1991.[1]

Almazbek Atambayev with Vladimir Putin.

President Askar Akayev was very enthusiastic about more direct forms of reintegration, such as the Eurasian Union that the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, proposed in June 1994. Akayev's invitation for Russian border guards to take charge of Kyrgyzstan's Chinese border, a major revision of his policy of neutrality, was another move toward reintegration.[2]

The Kyrgyzstani government also felt compelled to request Russia's economic protection. Despite concerted efforts to seek international "sponsors," Akayev did not receive much more than international good will.[2]

President Almazbek Atambayev repeatedly presented himself as a pro-Russian politician during his years in office. He announced Kyrgyzstan's entry into the Customs Union, secured the withdrawal of the American 376th Air Expeditionary Wing from the country in 2014, and had spoken of the need for closer economic relations with the Russian Federation.[3]

For all the financial support that the world community has offered, Kyrgyzstan remains economically dependent on Russia, both directly and through Kazakhstan. On his February 1994 visit to Moscow, Akayev signed several economic agreements. Having promised the republic a 75 billion ruble line of credit (presumably for use in 1994) and some US$65 million in trade agreements, Russia also promised to extend to Kyrgyzstan most favoured nation status for the purchase of oil and other fuels. For its part, Kyrgyzstan agreed to the creation of a Kyrgyz-Russian investment company, which would purchase idle defence-related factories in the republic to provide employment for the increasingly dissatisfied Russian population of Kyrgyzstan.

In early 1995, Prime Minister Apas Jumagulov of Kyrgyzstan and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin of Russia signed a series of agreements establishing bilateral coordination of economic reform in the two states, further binding Kyrgyzstan to Russia. After lobbying hard for inclusion, Kyrgyzstan became a member of the customs union that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan established in February 1996.[2] In early 1995, Askar Akayev, the then President of Kyrgyzstan, attempted to sell Russian companies controlling shares in the republic's twenty-nine largest industrial plants, an offer that Russia refused.[2]

Both Kyrgyzstan and Russia are members of the Eurasian Economic Union.[7] In February 2009 the Russian government pledged to write off Kyrgyzstan's $180 million debt as well as promising to lend a further $2 billion, give $150 million in direct aid and subsidise the building of the Kambarata-1 hydropower plant at the Kambaratinsk Dam.[8] In March 2019, the Russian government announced that it would give a $30 million (USD) in economic and military aid to Kyrgyzstan.[9]

Since 2003, Russian Air Force units have been stationed at Kant Air Base east of Bishkek. On 20 September 2012, Russia and Kyrgyzstan signed an agreement in which Russia is allowed to have a joint military base in Kyrgyzstan for 15 years starting from 2017. The agreement was signed in Bishkek between Vladimir Putin and Almazbek Atambayev. Putin stated that the joint military base will be a significant factor adding to the stability in the country and the whole region.

• 
  Vladimir Putin and Sooronbay Jeenbekov.
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  Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
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  Russian defence minister Sergey Shoygu during a meeting with President Sooronbay Jeenbekov and Major General Rayimberdi Duishenbiev in Bishkek, April 2019.