Russia says Kyrgyzstan is in chaos and needs stabilising

Russia said on Thursday that Kyrgyzstan, where Russia has an air base, had descended into chaos and Moscow had obligations under an existing security treaty to prevent the situation from totally breaking down.

The Central Asian nation has been gripped by unrest since parliamentary elections on Sunday which government critics and western monitors said were marred by votebuying. Protesters stormed government buildings on Tuesday and rival groups have since claimed power.

Parliament failed to gather a quorum in an overnight session, deputies said earlier on Thursday, extending the power vacuum. "The situation looks like a mess and chaos", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing, referring to Russian obligations under a security treaty between the two countries to avoid a complete breakdown of govt.

He also confirmed that Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia's FSB security service, had spoken to the new acting security chief of Kyrgysztan, Omurbek Suvanaliyev, on Wednesday. Three opposition groups have each proposed their candidates for interim prime minister who would need to oversee a repeat vote in the coming months, Kyrgyz news website Akipress quoted deputy Ryskeldi Mombekov as saying.

In addition to Sadyr Zhaparov and Tilek Toktogaziyev, who have already made their ambitions clear this week, Mombekov said Omurbek Babanov, who has already served as the cabinet head, had also emerged as a contender.

But the outgoing parliament has itself split into two groups that were meeting separately outside the headquarters ransacked by protesters, Mombekov said, and the group that met overnight in a hotel only included 40 MPs.