Putin Steps in to Mediate Border Dispute Between Two Other Nations

Russian President Vladimir Putin stood in to mediate a border dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on Thursday, as his own war with neighboring Ukraine approaches the eight-month mark.

Putin initiated a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the Kazakh capital of Astana, amid rising tensions between the two countries over recent reports of deadly clashes at Kyrgyzstan's border with Tajikistan.

The Russian president, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon held their meeting on the sidelines of the Sixth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state-run Rossiya-1 TV channel on Thursday that the situation between the two nations was uneasy.

In September, before a cease-fire was imposed, the two Central Asian countries accused one another of deploying tanks, rocket artillery, mortars and drones at the border.

Tajik officials have said more than 40 of its citizens have been killed in cross-border clashes, while Kyrgyzstan has reported 59 dead.

"There certainly aren't many countries who, like Russia, would take on the task of facilitating efforts to resolve the situation and ease tensions," Peskov said Thursday.

Putin said Friday that the situation on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border was discussed at the meeting with his counterparts.

He said that the meeting was constructive and that measures would be taken to prevent conflicts at the border, Russia's state-run news agency TASS reported.

A brief Kremlin handout of Putin's remarks released Thursday focuses on Russia's relationship with both states and trade.

"For a long time, we have been planning to meet in this format and have been coordinating a meeting. Finally, it was organized on the sidelines of today's event. I would like to thank you for agreeing to talk, to meet in this format," Putin told the two leaders on Thursday.

"We have very close ties in many areas. Our trade is growing. We recorded a roughly 45 percent increase on both sides during the past year and 20–30 percent in the first seven months of this year. This is trade on a very large scale," he added.

"Of course, we are interested in maintaining these conditions, or creating them anew where necessary, for the sake of steady, gradual development."

According to a statement from the Kremlin in September, Putin urged Japarov and Rahmon to put a stop to the violence at the Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border.

Putin "called on the parties to prevent further escalation and to take steps to resolve the situation as soon as possible, and this only through peaceful and political and diplomatic means," the Kremlin's statement said.

Historically, Russia has mediated conflicts between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, even after their independence from the Soviet Union in the 90s.

Newsweek reached out to the foreign ministries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia for comment.

Update 10/14/22, 9:10 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include that Vladimir Putin said that the trilateral meeting with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was constructive.