Putin appeals for calm, offers aid in phone call with Kyrgyz opposition leader
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged the Kyrgyz people to refrain from violence and offered the country humanitarian aid in a telephone conversation with Kyrgyz opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva on Thursday, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov said Otunbayeva had told Putin her country needed economic assistance to deal with "the difficult situation" in the country and Putin said Russia was ready to offer humanitarian aid.
"It is important to note the conversation was held with Otunbayeva in her capacity as the head of a national confidence government," Peskov said, quoted by Russian media. Otunbayeva and other opposition leaders have formed an interim coalition government after elected president Kurmanbek Bakiyev fled the capital amid public protests and rioting.
Otunbayeva told Putin "a government of people's trust under her formation was controlling the situation in Kyrgyzstan, as well as all law enforcement agencies and armed forces," Peskov said.
"Putin appealed (for the Kyrgyz people) to refrain from violence and to take all necessary measures to ensure the security of foreign offices and diplomatic missions," Peskov said.
The Russian prime minister and President Dmitry Medvedev were in constant contact with Kyrgyz officials over the current situation in the country, the spokesman said.
Kyrgyzstan was rocked by deadly protest riots on Wednesday in which at least 74 people were killed.
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