Kyrgyzstan wants to replace Pentagon fuel contractors

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The U.S. base at Manas houses planes like this CK-135 tanker that provide refueling over Afghanistan.


Kyrgyzstan wants to replace Pentagon fuel contractors
By Andrew Higgins and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 22, 2010

NEW YORK - In a move that could complicate Washington's war effort in Afghanistan, the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan wants to bar Pentagon contractors from supplying jet fuel to a U.S. air base that is critical to the Afghan campaign.

In an interview, Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva said private companies handling supplies should be replaced by a joint venture between a Kyrgyz state company and Russia's state-controlled Gazpromneft, a major source of jet fuel in the region.

Such an arrangement, Otunbayeva said, would reduce corruption, increase transparency and end "the absolutely dark corner" of Pentagon contracts. She estimated that her country would collect $50 million a year by cutting out middlemen.

But the plan would provide Moscow with direct leverage over an American base outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, that serves as a vital logistics hub for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.

Moscow has long been wary of the U.S. military presence in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic that Russia considers to be in its sphere of influence. Russia has frequently used Gazprom, the parent company of Gazpromneft, as an instrument of political and diplomatic pressure.