“The decision to shut down the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan is a sovereign decision of the Kyrgyz leadership,” the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the Spanish TV channel TVE and newspaper El Pais.

Medvedev noted that the initial agreement to set up a base was signed for two years. “The base was there for eight years. Apparently, this was not what they agreed to. But in any case, it should be respected as any other decision made by a sovereign state in keeping with applicable laws,” the Russian president said.