Russia sends extra troops to airbase in Kyrgyzstan
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Some 150 Russian paratroopers have left for the Russian airbase in Kyrgyzstan to ensure security of the base, the chief of staff of Russia's armed forces said Thursday.
"The president has decided to send two companies of paratroopers there and some 150 people have arrived in Kant," said Nikolay Makarov, who was accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague for the signing of a new nuclear disarmament deal with the United States, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.
The Russian airbase in Kant, some 20 km outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, functioned normally after the unrest in the Central Asian nation, Russian Air Force spokesman Vladimir Drik said on Thursday.
"The airbase is operating under a routine training schedule. There have been no incidents with Russian air garrison personnel registered. No one has been injured," the RIA Novosti news agency cited Drik as saying.
Earlier a source with Russia's Defense Ministry said the Russian airbase was on high alert but not affected by the riot that has so far left at least 74 dead and more than 500 injured in the Central Asian nation.
Opposition protests started in the northwestern Kyrgyz town of Talas on Tuesday and quickly spread to other parts of the country, including the capital Bishkek. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev fled to southern Kyrgyzstan after a day of bloody unrest.
Kyrgyz opposition parties on Thursday announced the creation of an interim government led by Roza Otunbayeva.
