Kyrgyzstan: Maxim Bakiyev Claimed He Helped US Keep Manas Base -- WikiLeaks
According to a fresh trickle of news from WikiLeaks, Maxim Bakiyev told a US diplomat that Washington had him to thank for keeping open the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan after his father, then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, declared he would close it.
The revelation comes from a purported US Embassy cable, unavailable on the WikiLeaks site but printed by Russky Reporter, a Russian magazine owned by the pro-Kremlin media concern Expert.
The cable -- allegedly sent a day after the announcement that the base would be renamed a “transit center” -- details a dinner date between the former US Charge d’Affaires, Lee Litzenberger, ex-Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev and Maxim in July 2009.Litzenberger notes that the “slightly spoiled” Maxim is a casual dresser, unshaven, slightly overweight and balding, with a penchant for personalized cigars and scotch.
At the dinner, held in an “almost tastefully decorated” annex to a plush Bishkek restaurant, Sarbayev reportedly told Litzenberger that Maxim had used his influence to convince Bakiyev Snr to keep the base open after he promised Moscow he would close it in return for a wad of cash.
Over dinner with Charge, President Bakiyev's youngest son Maxim claimed credit for masterminding the Kyrgyz decision to keep the Manas Air Base operational by calling it a "Transit Center” […] Sarbayev told [Litzenberger] that, in fact, the whole concept of a new agreement based on changing the name and allowing operations to continue as normal, was Maxim's. He, Sarbayev, had only been the ‘executor’ of the idea.
[…] Maxim claimed that, working through American “friends” in Washington, he had agreed the outlines of the new arrangement (“change the name, keep the operation”) even before the US negotiating team arrived in April. At one point, Maxim said, when the US team was resisting the Kyrgyz proposal to replace all references to ‘military personnel’ with the term ‘Department of Defense personnel,’ Maxim called his friends in Washington to fix the problem. Maxim claimed Washington instructed the negotiating team to accept the Kyrgyz proposal.
Maxim’s American “friends” are not identified, but they seem to be individuals in a position to discuss the creation of a Special Forces’ base -- an ever so helpful suggestion Maxim also claims to have made. (That may narrow down the list of his possible pals.)
Maxim claimed to have met recently with his American "friends" in Istanbul, where he claimed the Americans reacted positively to his suggestion that the U.S. should build a Special Forces training camp in Kyrgyzstan. Troops heading to Afghanistan, he said, could come to the camp "for a month of training and acclimatization to the region." Maxim indicated training could be joint, with Kyrgyz special forces, or U.S.-only.
The president’s son “was extremely pleased with himself for his alleged (though likely exaggerated) behind-the-scenes role in masterminding the Transit Center agreements,” the cable concluded, suggesting his swank could be useful:
The Embassy has not had contact with Maxim in recent years, due to his unofficial status and the many rumors about his questionable efforts to obtain financial control over many sectors of business. Nevertheless, in the wake of the new Transit Center agreements, Maxim's favorable disposition towards the United States could be of benefit to our interests.
Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.