US Special Forces trained the Praetorian Guard of the presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
The notorious site WikiLeaks published diplomatic dispatches, according to which the special units of the United States of America trained in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan units that served as personal bodyguards of the heads of these states.
For example, in one of the dispatches published on the website, addressed to the American Embassy in Dushanbe, we are talking about the preparation of the National Guard of Tajikistan. The document says that one of the US special forces, namely the Central Command of Special Operations, conducted four training courses with the Tajik troops. The National Guard, says the dispatch, is designed primarily to protect the Rahmon regime and is under directly under its control. In addition, it is also entrusted with the mission of protecting the head of state himself, and therefore enjoys certain privileges among other security structures of the country. Moreover, a fifth year of study was planned, scheduled for January 2012.
Another dispatch, which was also published by WikiLeaks, is addressed to Bishkek, dating back to January 2009. This document deals with the training of special units of Kyrgyzstan. The document also states that several special polygons for Kyrgyz special forces were formed by American special forces, in particular, for the 25-th separate special brigade "Scorpion" of the Ministry of Defense, as well as the special squad "Panther". There is also a mention of the fact that the Americans also purchased new equipment for these specialized military forces.
A year later, in 2010, the media of Kyrgyzstan reported that the Panther squad was disbanded, and all equipment and personnel moved to another unit, Arstan, which was directly subordinated to the President of the Republic, K. Bakiyev. However, further events showed that this special squad failed to fulfill the task set for him: two months later, the Bakiyev regime fell.
According to the analyst who deals with the issues of Central Asian policy, Erica Marat, over the past few years, the structure of the armed forces of Kyrgyzstan has changed dramatically, because the president has introduced his relatives to all the main security posts. Such a policy was dictated by the desire to completely subjugate the army. In addition, Bakiyev planned to receive substantial funding from the United States to develop anti-terrorism programs.
But it is not possible to receive comments on this from the officials of the US State Department responsible for providing assistance in the military industry.
As the budget documentation of the United States shows, it is planned to allocate funds for rendering feasible assistance to the troops of Tajikistan to support the most promising and professional military units. But in order for the funds to arrive, a reform of the republic’s armed forces is needed, which will entail the creation of an efficient army ready to cooperate with America in the process of conducting peacekeeping and other multilateral military operations.
As for Kyrgyzstan, the funds in the US State Department are also allocated, but some will be directed to the purchase of new military equipment in order to strengthen the fighting capacity of the Kyrgyz army while protecting the republic from terrorist threats. It is planned that the US government will directly cooperate with the military department of Kyrgyzstan in order to identify the equipment and equipment necessary to maintain the combat readiness of the security forces at the appropriate level.
And even despite the fact that American laws prohibit helping special forces that violate human rights, there is not a single law that would prohibit rendering assistance to an individual president, and not to the security forces of the state as a whole.
According to experts, in particular, a professor of political science at Barnard College and an expert on Central Asia, Alexander Kuli, such active financial assistance is more like compensation of moral compensation for the desire to turn local security forces into something like Western ones. In addition, if strict control is absent, all funds allocated will be spent on strengthening the position of authoritarian governments, rather than on very noble goals, for example, on the fight against terrorism.
That is, according to Erica Marat, the presidents of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, who successfully used American finances for their own purposes, believed that the United States is obliged to help them.
As can be seen from the annual report on joint exercises with foreign states, exercises with Tajik security forces included the refinement of anti-terrorist actions: night operations, handling weapons, ability to use means of communication, patrolling, shooting accuracy, saving lives, as well as hand-to-hand combat and tactical knowledge. During 2007, 250 special forces from Tajikistan and 175 - Kyrgyzstan were trained. In addition, one of the exercises in the Kyrgyz Republic was held with the participation of "Panther" and "Alpha". In the course of the second, the counter-terrorist forces of the Ministry of Defense were included.
According to another published dispatch, during the 2008 exercise with the participation of Alpha fighters, there was a slight embarrassment - the Alfists successfully took away not only equipment and weapons, but also money that they could not return until the end of the exercise. However, this behavior did not cause any negative reaction from the States, at least, this is evidenced by the visit to Kyrgyzstan of General Petraeus, who declared his desire to extend cooperation between the special forces of the two countries.
In addition to these documents, WikiLeaks also provided other dispatches, according to which the United States was actively thinking about the possibility of training special units of Turkmenistan. At the beginning of 2010, Major General Charles Cleveland, the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Directorate of Special Operations for America, met Yaylym Berdiyev, the Turkmen Secretary of Defense. During this meeting, the American side expressed a desire to develop relations between the two countries in terms of training special forces.
As an example, they cited the possibility of teaching Turkmen snipers, as well as training in the methods of freeing buildings, conducting hand-to-hand combat and rendering first aid. The Turkmen side has not yet answered anything definitively, although there was a clear interest on its part, which helped predict further meetings and move from words to deeds — from expert consultations to holding joint exercises. However, what is the result of such US-Turkmen meetings, it remains unclear.
It is known that the American special forces conducted joint exercises with Azerbaijan and Georgia. So, in September 2009, the American special forces conducted a training course with Azerbaijani intelligence units that replaced the KGB. In 2008, the US ground and naval special forces conducted a course in joint exercises.
In 2009, it was planned to conduct a training course for the special units of Armenia, but it was never conducted due to the refusal of the Armenian side.
In the 2008, training was conducted for the special units of Georgia, just shortly before the start of the Russian-Georgian conflict, two more courses were planned, however, due to the invasion of Russian troops, they had to be canceled.
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