Medvedev: No plan to send troops to Kyrgyzstan
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Visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that his country would offer Kyrgyzstan's interim government assistance necessary for stabilizing situation, but the possible deployment of peacekeeping forces would be decided by the Collective Security Treaty organization (CSTO).
"The state is not operating as it should, while the country de facto is split into parts and civil unrest and clashes continue on ethnic grounds, the authorities have been incapable of preventing what has happened," Medvedev told a joint press conference with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama after their meeting in the White House.
The ethnic clashes in the southern Kyrgyzstan have left some 210 people dead, some 2,100 others wounded since it broke out in mid-June. Figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs showed that an estimated 100,000 refugees had fled from Kyrgyzstan to neighboring Uzbekistan, and 300,000 others were still seeking aid within Kyrgyzstan.
Medvedev said his government has been working with Kyrgyzstan's interim government, adding that Russia considers Kyrgyzstan to be a strategic partner. "We will help them, both in terms of money and humanitarian aid," the president said, but dismissing the possibility on sending Russian troops to Kyrgyzstan.
"I believe that Kyrgyzstan should on its own cope with these problems. The Russian Federation does not plan any deployment of a peaceful contingent," said Medvedev, adding that the Russia- chaired CSTO will respond to Kyrgyzstan's situation. But "so far, there is no need."
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