WASHINGTON, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not planning to send peacekeepers to Kyrgyzstan, where deadly inter-ethnic clashes claimed hundreds of lives earlier this month, President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday.
"The Russian Federation has never had plans to send its special peacekeeping contingent there [Kyrgyzstan], although consultations have been held on the issue," Medvedev said at a joint press conference with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama after top-level talks.
The Kyrgyz interim government asked Russia to send troops to the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic to help quench the unrest that began in the southern city of Osh on June 11 and spread to nearby Jalalabad, leaving more than 260 people dead, according to official estimates.
The unofficial death toll could be as much as 2,000.
Medvedev said Russia is working with Kyrgyzstan's provisional authorities. "We realize that they are yet to prove their legitimacy, but anyway, Russia believes Kyrgyzstan is a strategic partner," he said.
"This is a country that is close to us, and we will help it both in financial terms and to resolve humanitarian tasks," the Russian leader said.
"We hope a full-fledged authority capable of resolving tasks facing the state is formed during elections. Otherwise, Kyrgyzstan faces degradation, and, unfortunately, is quite likely to split," he said.
