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Russian paratroopers recalled from Kyrgyzstan

Other News Materials 8 July 2010 12:51 (UTC +04:00)
Russian paratroopers have returned to their home base in Russia from Kyrgyzstan, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Russian paratroopers recalled from Kyrgyzstan

Russian paratroopers have returned to their home base in Russia from Kyrgyzstan, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Russia sent additional paratroopers to the Central Asian state amid bloody interethnic riots in the republic's south. Clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks claimed the lives of up to 300 people, according to official figures, with an unofficial death toll exceeding 2,000, RIA Novosti reported.

The paratroopers were sent in mid-June to enhance security at Russia's Kant military base in the country's north, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital, Bishkek.

A total of 270 troops have been recalled from Kyrgyzstan as tensions in the republic have eased, Alexander Cherednik said. Two more paratrooper companies remained at the base, he said.

More than 1,500 people were displaced by the June unrest in the Central Asian republic. A state of emergency was declared in the Jalalabad region and several districts of the Osh region, where the clashes took place.

The situation in the republic remains strained since large-scale opposition protests overturned President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April, bringing the interim government to power. Bakiyev fled the country and has taken refuge in Belarus.

The country held a referendum on June 27, which turned the country from a presidential to a parliamentary republic and made the interim prime minister, Roza Otunbayeva, the country's president for a transitional period until 2012. The reform is designed to bring stability to Kyrgyzstan.

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