Bakiyev steps down from President post

MOSCOW: Ousted President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev formally stepped down even as the new interim government extended the United States lease of a key airbase in the country for another year.

Mr. Bakiyev faxed his hand-written resignation letter to Kyrgyzstan's new leaders overnight from Kazakhstan.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Mr. Bakiyev's resignation helped avoid a “full-scale civil war and the state's split into parts” following a violent revolt that overthrew Mr. Bakiyev's government last week.

Mr. Medvedev revealed that he had discussed the Kyrgyz crisis with U.S. President Barack Obama and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who holds rotating presidency in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in Washington on the sidelines of a nuclear security conference.

Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz interim government on Friday extended by one year the U.S. lease of an airbase that serves as a transit point for NATO operations in Afghanistan.