President Barack Obama meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office of the White House May 7, 2009. Photo: Pete Souza via White House..

CS Monitor – In an unprecedented move, Russia is offering NATO the use of a Russian airbase for aircraft refueling and the transit of “non lethal” supplies and personnel. Moscow says the offer is an effort to ease the strain on the alliance’s increasingly restricted supply chain to forces in Afghanistan.

The tentative offer was described yesterday by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a speech to the Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament. It could see up to 30 NATO cargo flights a day come through the Vostochny airport in the Volga region of Ulyanovsk, en route to or from Kabul, about 2,000 miles away.

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