For Kyrgyzstan observers, reports that kerosene is being stolen from a Russian airbase and illegally sold on the open market will hardly surprise. But it is still embarrassing.
Last week Kyrgyz authorities formally began investigating why a truck stopped leaving the Kant Airbase last month was found carrying 13 tons of stolen kerosene.
Details about the October 7 incident that triggered the November 11 investigation are still scarce. The driver, who appeared to have entered the Kant base without documents, has not been identified in press reports.
It seems unlikely a theft from the heavily guarded base would be possible without the connivance of Russian soldiers stationed there, Ruslan Umarov, who is heading the investigation for the State Service for the Fight Against Economic Crimes, conceded on November 12. “We have a circle of suspects. Currently we are clarifying the market channels, buyers and suppliers. It is possible that military servicemen at the Kant Airbase are involved in the case,” Umarov is quoted as saying by several Kyrgyz news outlets.
Kant receives its kerosene, which it uses it to fuel fighter planes and other aircraft, from a Kyrgyz-Russian joint-stock company partly owned by Russian energy behemoth Gazprom: Gazprom Neft Aero-Kyrgyzstan. The company has friends in high places. Sapar Isakov, President Almazbek Atambayev’s chief foreign policy advisor, was formerly chair of the company’s board.
Kerosene supplies to the base must have gone up in recent times after a Russian military official promised last year to “at least double” the fleet stationed there. Estimates of the number of aircraft at the airbase vary.
Before it closed earlier this year, the American airbase at Manas airport outside of Bishkek was a hub of small-time smuggling and dodgy fuel contracts. So it would be in keeping with expectations if the Russian base has its own share of illicit operations. Moreover, Russian soldiers have been involved in Central Asian smuggling schemes before, notably during the 1990s when they guarded Tajikistan’s narcotics-fraught border with Afghanistan.
Moscow and Bishkek agreed to extend the lease on Kant by 15 years in 2012.
Chris Rickleton is a journalist based in Almaty.
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