STRATEGIC CHESS MOVES ACROSS EURASIA                
 
The Kyrgyz government decision allowing continued use of its Manas air base by the US forces , after the 25-26  July visit of US Secretary of Defense , Donald Rumsfeld, followed a few days later by the Uzbek government’s courier delivered  note to the US Embassy in Tashkent demanding that Washington wind up its Karshi-Khanabad (K2) base in south Uzbekistan in 180 days , along with the announcement of joint Russian Chinese military exercises scheduled for August , in the wake of 5 July notice to USA by Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to set a time table to withdraw its troops from bases in central Asia, are some of the strategic moves being made on the Eurasian chess board to counter US led Western expansion into eastern and even central Eurasian lands , by Russia as well as its former Soviet republics , with China now joining hands.
 
Russia has separated the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) into a core group, which with measures being proposed could transform it into a full-fledged collective security organization.
 
Along with India, Iran and Pakistan were admitted as Observers to the SCO, at its Moscow summit.
 
History never ends, as a reading of world history would tell anyone. After the fall of the Berlin Wall , U.S.-led West moved first stealthily , then rampantly to roll back Russia from the strategic space it occupied as a 2nd world war victor , beginning with the removal of Milosevic of Serbia ,an Orthodox Slav people ,traditional friends of Orthodox Slav Russians.
 
US then brought about regime changes in Georgia and Ukraine and installed its puppets and allowed Ilham Aliev succeeds his father Haidar Aliev, President of Azerbaijan, an US ally, in a disputed 2003 election. In this 21st century struggle for the control of strategic space, energy sources and raw materials, US has built up a million barrel a day Baku-Tibilsi-Ceyhan pipeline, an energy corridor to squeeze Russia and Iran out from energy transportation to Europe . Stationing of troops in Georgia and Azerbaijan to guard it would be a strategic menace for the region, specially Azerbaijan‘s southern neighbor Iran, part of US Axis of evil and off and on its hit list.  
 
However, when the US financed and supported franchised street revolutions to bring about favorable regime changes reached into the very heart of central Asia in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, it was too close for comfort not only for Russia but also for Kyrgyzstan’s eastern neighbor China, which is also facing US moves to hem it in from east and south.  Whether USA, caught in the Iraq quagmire with its forces thinly spread, can succeed in is objectives is another matter. 
 
In history ,the former Soviet Union steppes have been the scene of decisive battles and wars by chariot riding Indo-Europeans and horse riding  Turkish, Mongol and other tribes who molded the history of the then known civilized world in Asia , Middle East , Eastern Europe and Mediterranean. Once again, it occupies a central space.
 
Unprecedented joint military exercises by China and Russia;
 
In a clear message to the United States and others , in an unprecedented move China and Russia would carry out a joint military exercises scheduled for August 18 to 25 near Russia's far-east port city of Vladivostok, before moving to the Yellow Sea and then to an area off the coastal Chinese province of Shandong. Apart from 2000 Russian troops, the exercises would involve Russia's Il-76 transport planes with paratroopers, Tu-95MS bombers firing cruise missiles at targets in the sea and Su-27SM fighter jets simulating coverage of ground forces.
 
The exercises are said to concentrate on anti-terrorist drills, when a fictitious state becomes plagued by terrorist violence and seeks assistance from neighboring states (i.e. Russia and China) to restore law and order. Nevertheless, why the strategic bombers and submarines! Reports indicated differences over the location, with Russia wanting it near Xinjiang, while China wanted to locate it near Taiwan, but it is now quite far away from both these places. Sixty five percent of Izvestia‘s readers in an internet poll indicated that the exercises were aimed at USA.

Russian and Chinese Generals, including defense ministers, Russian Chief of General Staff Yury Baluyevsky and his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie, are expected to attend the exercises. This exercise was first included in a memorandum of understanding between Chinese Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Guo Boxiong, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in July 2004 but made public in December 2004, when Ivanov visited China.

US base in Kyrgyzstan; {mosgoogle right}
 
After meetings with Rumsfeld on 26 July in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, its leaders were persuaded that as Afghanistan remained volatile and the Manas base was needed to provide logistical support for US operations. "The base at Manas will stay as long as the situation in Afghanistan requires," acting Kyrgyz Defense Minister Ismail Isakov said during a news conference with Rumsfeld. "Once there is stabilization, there will be no need. But now I agree with [Rumsfeld], who said the situation in Afghanistan is far from stable." This was Rumsfeld’s second visit to Bishkek this year.