Kyrgyzstan's self-proclaimed new leaders thanked Russia yesterday for helping to oust President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and said they aimed to close a US air base that supplies forces in Afghanistan.
Their comments set Wednesday's overthrow of Mr Bakiyev, who fled the capital Bishkek as crowds stormed government buildings, firmly in the context of superpower rivalry in central Asia.
Russia noted Mr Bakiyev had failed to fulfil a promise to shut the US air base at Manas, and one official said there should be only one military base in the country - a Russian one.
Omurbek Tekebayev, a former Kyrgyz opposition leader who took charge of constitutional matters in the new government, said that "Russia played its role in ousting Bakiyev".
"You've seen the level of Russia's joy when they saw Bakiyev gone," he said. "So now there is a high probability that the duration of the US air base's presence in Kyrgyzstan will be shortened."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied Moscow had played a part in the turmoil, but was the first foreign leader to recognise opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva as leader of Kyrgyzstan, and rang her soon after she said she was in charge.
Ms Otunbayeva, who once served as Mr Bakiyev's foreign minister, said the interim government controlled the whole country, except for Mr Bakiyev's power base of Osh and Jalabad in the south, and had the backing of the armed forces and border guards.
She said the situation in Kyrgyzstan's economy was "fairly alarming" and it would need foreign aid. She said Mr Putin had asked how Russia could help.
"We agreed that my first deputy and the republic's former prime minister, Almaz Atambayev, would fly to Moscow and formulate our needs," she told Russian Ekho Moskvy radio.
Mr Putin had not promised a specific sum, she said. "But the fact that he called, spoke nicely, went into detail, asked about details - generally, I was moved by that. It is a signal."
Ms Otunbayeva said Mr Bakiyev was holed up in Jalabad. "What we did yesterday was our answer to the repression and tyranny against the people by the Bakiyev regime," she told reporters.
"You can call this revolution. You can call this a people's revolt. Either way, it is our way of saying that we want justice and democracy."
A senior Russian official, speaking in Prague hours after President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama signed a treaty there cutting their nuclear arsenals, said Moscow would advise the new government that there should be only one base in the former Soviet state, and it should be the Russian one.
Mr Bakiyev announced the US base would close during a visit to Moscow last year at which he also secured $2 billion in crisis aid, only to agree later to keep it open at a higher rent.