CSTO: News and Developments

Yeah that sounds about right.

I'm not really familiar with the inner CSTO workings, but it seems to be based on member consesus. The "rapid reaction" force looks more of a add hoc structure atm, in other words the CSTO is more of a political organisation than a practical military one currently....I guess it will develop further depending on the progress of the Eurasian project.

Russian Military Aircraft Deployed to Tajikistan for Joint Drills – Defense

Four Russian Air Force aircraft have been transferred from their base in Kyrgyzstan to an airfield in Dushanbe in the neighboring Central Asian republic of Tajikistan as part of a snap combat readiness check, the Russian Defense Ministry's press service said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A number of Russian Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters were also transported to the Dushanbe airfield as part of the drills, according to the press release.

"As part of the snap inspection of combat readiness of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CRRF) of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which started on May 12, two Su-25 assault aircraft and two Su-24 bombers were redeployed from the Russian air base in Kant to Dushanbe," the statement said.

Overall, some 500 Russian servicemen and 60 pieces of military equipment are expected to take part in the exercises in Tajikistan.

On Tuesday, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said that the country's servicemen would travel to Tajikistan to train with their counterparts from other CSTO member states, which also includes Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Organization's rapid reaction force was established in 2009 to counter a limited military aggression against CSTO member states, as well as to combat terrorism and drug trafficking.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150514/1022122220.html#ixzz3a776ZSVR

CSTO Rapid Reaction Forces Carry Out Military Exercises in Tajikistan

CSTO holds military exercises of its rapid reaction forces on Sunday in Tajikistan.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) holds military exercises of its rapid reaction forces on Sunday in Tajikistan, CSTO said in a statement.

"Military contingents at the Harbmaydon site in the south of the country exercise units’ coordination, as well as the practical skills with elements of live firing," the statement reads.

The drills involve more than 2,500 troops, 200 units of armaments and military equipment, about 20 combat aircraft and helicopters and 30 military transport aircraft.

The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance formed in 1992 with six members at present: Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus, as well as two observer states – Afghanistan and Serbia.

The Organization's rapid reaction force was established in 2009 to counter a limited military aggression against CSTO member states, as well as to combat terrorism and drug trafficking.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150517/1022242752.html#ixzz3aQrPygUg

Russian Troops Practice Airstrikes in Tajikistan

Ceremonial unit soldiers at the final rehearsal of the military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of Victory in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian troops are taking part in military training on Monday in Tajikistan alongside other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The CSTO is a military alliance comprising Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

As part of a snap inspection of the alliance’s Collective Rapid Reaction Force, troops are simulating combat with armed groups in mountainous terrain.

According to the exercise scenario, a Russian reconnaissance group on all-terrain vehicles discovers an enemy at a considerable distance from the main force.

In order to prevent the splinter group from rejoining the main enemy force, Russian Su-25 jets (NATO reporting name Frogfoot) carry out airstrikes using unguided rockets.

The ongoing drill includes coordination of electronic warfare units, work on protecting communications, as well as special drills for paratroopers practicing landing in mountain and desert terrain.

The exercise involves more than 2,500 military personnel, about 200 units of weaponry and military equipment, some 20 combat aircraft and helicopters, and 30 military transport aircraft.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150518/1022258156.html#ixzz3aUCmP5TN

CSTO Troops Drill Against 700-Strong Taliban Invasion Of Tajikistan

Russia and several of its allies have completed joint military exercises on the Tajikistan Afghanistan border, which they say was necessitated by the worsening situation in northern Afghanistan.

The drills of the Collective Security Treaty Organization began last week and the first step was deploying the 2,500 troops, without prior notice, to the exercise site in Tajikistan's Khatlon province. According to the scenario of the exercises, "the situation on the Tajik-Afghan border seriously deteriorated. Armed groups invaded the territory of Tajikistan from the territory of Afghanistan. The Tajikistan armed forces together with other security structures carry out military operations to repel the invasion."

Military units from the various CSTO member states carried out individual tasks: Tajikistani aircraft carried out aerial reconnaissance and identified the position of "terrorist groups" numbering 700 people.

Then an Armenian special forces company reconnoitered the site on the ground, traveling with modified Nissan pickup trucks armed with machine guns. Then, various special forces units from Belarus, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan advanced to "capture the militants' field commander and secure the withdrawal of the Armenian reconnaissance troops."

In the final stage, Russian and Kazakhstani bomber jets carried out air strikes on the militant positions, and drones identified targets for further artillery strikes.

So how realistic of a scenario is this? CSTO General Secretary Nikolay Bordyuzha, observing the exercise, said "the threat from Afghanstan persists, connected with the presence of Taliban and other armed groups not controlled by Kabul, on the southern vector of the CSTO area of responsibility." He said that there were some members of ISIS alongside the Taliban forces, "which can't but be cause for concern in the heads of the CSTO member states." And he blamed NATO: "In spite of the presence of NATO forces for more than a decade in that country, the economy has not been secured in Afghanistan, a normal living standard for the population has not been restored, and there are difficulties in the military-political aspect."

"The difficult situation in Afghanistan was one of the reasons for these snap exercises of the rapid reaction troops of the CSTO," he added.

An unnamed official from Tajikistan intelligence services told Russian news agency TASS that the Taliban now control 80 percent of the Afghanistan province of Badakhshan, which borders the Tajikistan province of the same name. "At present, separate units of the terrorists have advanced right up to the Afghan-Tajik border and have stopped a few kilometers away from it,” the official said.

“Proceeding from the information we have, the Taliban don’t have any plans to cross the state border into Tajikistan at the moment but nonetheless a second line of defense consisting of Tajikistani Army units has been set up along the most vulnerable sections of the border as a preventive measure," he added. A spokesman for Tajikistan's ministry of defense identified the priority sections of the border as Shakhritus, Pyanj, Khamadoni, Farkhor, Shuroabad, and Darvaza, RFE/RL reported.

Still, assuming the Taliban were to want to advance into Tajikistan, it remains doubtful that they would do so via a 700-man invasion force, into a territory where all available evidence suggests they would have no support among the local population. Still, Russia and the CSTO seem to be thinking that a show of force can assure Central Asians that the Islamist spillover threat that their governments have been hyping is something that their security forces can handle.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73536

Russian Defense Minister Arrives in Tajikistan for CSTO Meeting

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150603/1022890659.html#ixzz3c0GyoRlW

Defense Ministry satisfied with the result of sudden check CRRF

CSTO defence ministers agree to change military-technical policy

CSTO defence ministers also discussed "the situation in the Central Asian region, the challenges faced by Tajikistan and other regional countries and the processes under way in Afghanistan"

DUSHANBE, June 4. /TASS/. A number of significant measures, including on upgrading the military-technical policy, will be taken following meeting of the Council of Defence Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held earlier on Thursday in Dushanbe, CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha told reporters.

"This concerns, above all, upgrading the organization’s legal framework and legislations of CSTO member-countries, especially in the light of issues we encountered during the transfer of the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force to Tajikistan," Bordyuzha said after the meeting.

In addition to that, some aspects of the military-technical policy conducted by the organization’s members will be updated as well. He didn’t specify what these changes would imply.

The CSTO Secretary General noted that prior to the meeting the defence ministers had been received by Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon, adding that the meeting "grew into a very serious discussion of the situation in the Central Asian region, the challenges faced by Tajikistan and other regional countries and the processes under way in Afghanistan."

According to Bordyuzha, the participants in the meeting came up with a number of proposals relating to the changing situation on the border, its deterioration and extremist activities. These proposals, coupled with the ones made during the meeting of the Council of Defence Ministers, "will be taken into consideration, serious conclusions will be drawn and concrete steps taken," Bordyuzha said.

Russian Defense Minister says military threat from Afghanistan grows

Cooperation between Russia and Kyrgyzstan is an important factor of preserving stability in Central Asia in connection with the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, Sergey Shoigu says
Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu

KUBINKA (Moscow region), June 16. /TASS/. The military of Russia and Kyrgyzstan must be prepared to counter any threats to the collective security system of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the region in connection with the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"We consider cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in the military sphere to be a priority. Our cooperation is an important factor of preserving stability in the Central Asian region," the minister told his Kyrgyz counterpart Abibulla Kudaiberdiyev. The meeting took place in the framework of the Army-2015 international military and technical forum. "The armed forces of our countries must be ready for any scenario, including the negative one."

To that end, it is necessary to boost the combat capabilities of the Russian military base and the Kyrgyz army, Shoigu noted. He recalled that "contacts had been signed to transfer modern Russian weapons and equipment to the Kyrgyz side, their deliveries were under way." In addition to that, personnel for Kyrgyzstan’s army undergoes training free of charge at the universities of the Russian Defense Ministry. "At present 316 service members are undergoing training, we are ready to admit more than 150 people in 2015," Shoigu added.

Belarus calls for increasing post-Soviet security bloc's military component

The Collective Security Treaty Organization comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

MINSK, June 17. /TASS/. Belarus believes the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet security bloc, needs to strengthen its military component, the country’s Defense Minister Andrey Ravkov said in an interview with TASS on Wednesday.

The participation of Belarus in the organization "answers to national interests and contributes to strengthening and developing cooperation in the postmilitary and military and technical spheres" with its member-states, the minister said.

"While prioritizing the political means of achieving the goals of strengthening peace, we believe it is necessary to further enhance, develop and improve the military component of the CSTO," Ravkov said.

Belarus is ready to further participate in upgrading the legal basis defining the strategic priorities of the organization’s activity in the sphere of ensuring collective security, forming and developing coalition and regional force groupings and also allied military systems and peacekeeping forces, he said.

According to Ravkov, the CSTO continues being transformed into a multifunctional security structure.

"The organization has gained an adequate potential of containing military threats and in our opinion, it has become a unique tool capable of ensuring stability and security in the zone of its responsibility," he said.

The Belarusian servicemen take part in all the training activities as part of the CSTO, and most recently during the rapid reaction force exercise in Tajikistan in May, he said.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

RF put CSTO countries complexes for training crews of armored vehicles

The representative of the Joint instrument-making corporations also added that the complex equipment can be adapted for any kind of equipment, as the control point, in addition to the fixed version, can be mobile, such as a chassis "KamAZ" or "Ural".

MOSCOW, July 15 - RIA Novosti. Russia before the end of 2015 to supply foreign customers dozens of systems for the training of crews, allowing to conduct objective control action crews of armored vehicles and rocket-artillery weapons, according to RIA Novosti, the representative of the Joint instrument-Corporation (DIC, is a Rostec ).

"The system is capable of real-time tracking of all actions of the crew, fix the negotiations, as well as to display the data from the operator channel vision to assess the accuracy of shooting," - said the agency, noting that the delivery of the complex will go to the countries of North Africa and the countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)

He added that the equipment set can be adapted to any type of art, and the control unit, in addition to the fixed version, can be mobile, such as a chassis "KamAZ" or "Ural". The general public especially the system will be shown in August at the championship "Tank Biathlon" in September at the exhibition of arms Russia Arms Expo (RAE-2 015) in Nizhny Tagil.

For the Russian market, plus the complex is that it is cheaper than their foreign counterparts and works on individual communication channels. The work of the complex will be demonstrated to the public at the international competition "Tank Biathlon-2015", as well as at the international exhibition of arms and military equipment "Russia Arms Expo-2015".

"The complex is fully compliant with the Russian Ministry of Defense and can communicate with existing communications equipment to transmit data to the National Control Center of Defense of Russia", - said the representative of the defense industry.

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CSTO Countries 'Interaction-2015' Drills to Involve 2,000 Troops

Commander of Russia's Airborne Forces said that more than 2,000 personnel and 200 pieces of military hardware from the rapid response forces of the CSTO will take part in upcoming joint drills in northwestern Russia.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – More than 2,000 personnel and 200 pieces of military hardware from the rapid response forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization will take part in upcoming joint drills in northwestern Russia, Commander of Russia's Airborne Forces Col. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov said Wednesday.

The Interaction-2015 exercises on August 24-28 will involve units from Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

"The smallest contingent – an airborne platoon — will be deployed by Tajikistan, while Russia will send the largest contingent – two airborne battalions or about 1,000 troops," Shamanov said.

He added that Russia would also deploy over 40 combat aircraft and helicopters.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150819/1025908403.html#ixzz3jGC9owAQ

George1 wrote:CSTO drills on countering drug trafficking from Afghanistan to start in Tajikistan

This is much needed, in the future, this is going to become a big issue.

CSTO chief urges to increase aid to Tajikistan due to deterioration situation in region

Partners should boost their aid since Tajikistan is the major stronghold on the way of penetrating Central Asia, CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha said

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha has noted Tajikistan’s efforts in strengthening and protecting its border with Afghanistan where the situation is deteriorating.

"The efficiency [of assistance to Tajikistan] is needed because of the current situation. It is very unfavorable. The considerable part of the territory is controlled by the Taliban," Bordyuzha said.

Partners should boost their aid since Tajikistan is the major stronghold on the way of penetrating Central Asia, he continued. "I am confident that this aid will be increased. Such measures are taken. Works are underway to provide aid from Russian Armed Forces and other partners," the secretary general noted.

At the moment, Tajikistan receives aid in border troops training, preparation of military units, and equipment. Joint operations are held together with Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, Federal Migration Service and border control service. "All this works for strengthening security," Bordyuzha said.

He also noted Tajikistan’s efforts on strengthening the border. "Tajikistan’s authorities have made extraordinary steps over the last several months to strengthen border control troops and all border control infrastructure in general on the Tajik-Afghan border," he stressed. Several large-scale security drills were also held in the country with the participation of civilians.

"Tajikistan is doing a lot to prevent further deterioration of the situation in Central Asia," he concluded.

Putin and Rakhmon have agreed to hold a separate meeting at the CSTO summit

The Russian president viewed the developments in Tajikistan as an attempt to destabilise the situation and assured Tajikistan's government of Russia's support

MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. Presidents of Russia and Tajikistan Vladimir Putin and Emomali Rakhmon had a telephone conversation on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Russian president viewed the developments in Tajikistan as an attempt to destabilise the situation and assured Tajikistan's government of Russia's support, Peskov said adding the heads of state agreed to hold a separate meeting on the sidelines of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit due to be held in Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe later in September.

On Friday armed groups attacked two defence facilities in that Central Asian republic - the Defence Ministry’s central apparatus and a police station in the town of Vakhdat, just 10km east of the capital city of Dushanbe.

The Interior Ministry has said that the country’s law enforcement agencies are carrying out joint operations against the gang of former Deputy Defence Minister Abdulakhim Nazarzoda holing up in the Ramit mountain gorge.

"At present 32 members of Nazarzoda’s criminal group have been detained, with 13 out of them eliminated," the Interior Ministry said. "At least 500 units of arms and ammunition have been seized."

On Saturday a police checking point at an entrance of Dushanbe came under attack. One police officer was killed.

Russia Willing to Set Up Airbases in All CSTO Countries

Russia is ready to set up airbases on the territory of all its allies in the framework the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance formed in 1992 with six members at present: Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus, as well as two observer states – Afghanistan and Serbia.

Russia currently has airbases in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, and is planning to establish an airbase for fighter jets in eastern Belarus in 2016.

"We are ready to do it with all allied countries, be it CSTO members or CSTO plus union treaty as in the case with Belarus," Medvedev said.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150908/1026747457.html#ixzz3lBsdX7k0

Putin to discuss threats of terrorism, extremism with CSTO leaders in Dushanbe

Also, the Russian president is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the host country’s President Emomali Rakhmon and Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev

DUSHANBE, September 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending a two-day summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a security alliance of six former Soviet republics. The summit is due to focus on threats of terrorism and extremism.

Also, the Russian president, who arrived in Tajikistan’s capital city on Monday, is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the host country’s President Emomali Rakhmon and Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev.

Both meetings and the CSTO summit itself are taking place amid an anti-terrorist operation launched on September 4 so unprecedented measures have been taken to ensure security.

CSTO summit agenda

On Monday evening the CSTO leaders met over a traditional informal dinner on the summit eve. On Tuesday morning a joint session of the Councils of Foreign Ministers and of the Defence Ministers and the Committee of the secretaries of the CSTO Defence Council is due to take place.

The key program of Tuesday’s session of the CSTO council envisages a meeting of the leaders in narrow and broad formats, signing of joint documents, and a reception given by the summit host.

The council is to discuss the CSTO activity alongside key regional and global issues affecting the member states’ security, Ushakov said. "Certainly, top priority will be given to an increased activity of terrorist and extremist groups, and the situation in general along the CSTO countries’ borders," he said.

More than ten joint documents are due to be signed at the summit, including the leaders’ statement on key approaches to the current international agenda. Ushakov said the statement would reflect concern over an increasing number of new challenges and threats and would underline readiness of the CSTO countries to intensify measures aimed at settlement of regional and international problems and at greater coordination in foreign policies and in the whole system of collective security.

After the summit, Armenia will take over the one-year presidency of the CSTO.

CSTO secretary general

Elections of the secretary general of the Collective Security Council and the chief of the CSTO united headquarters are expected to be among other issues of the summit agenda.

"Certainly, we stand for succession in governing bodies of this Organisation," Ushakov replied when asked if Nikolai Bordyuzha could be re-elected as the CSTO secretary general.

The Collective Security Treaty was signed in 1992 and the Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising Russia and former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was established ten years later. The organization’s top priorities are "strengthening of peace, international and regional security and stability, protection of independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of its member states".

Scheduled for Monday evening, Putin’s meeting with the president of the host country has been postponed till Tuesday morning in favour of more contacts between CSTO leaders over an informal dinner.

The Kremlin called bilateral talks with Tajikistan’s president as natural amid developments in that Central Asian republic.

"Our president [in a phone conversation with Rakhmon on September 5] expressed firm support to efforts of Tajikistan’s leadership to bring the situation in the republic to order and ensure stability," Ushakov said. "Of course, we are ready to render assistance and political support. I think that this issue will be on top of the agenda at the meeting," he added.

Besides, Putin and Rakhmon will focus on "issues of further strengthening multi-faceted mutually beneficial cooperation in defence and national economy", Ushakov said.
Talks with Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev

The Russian president is expected to discuss with his Kyrgyz counterpart "prospects for further bilateral cooperation in different aspects along with topical international issues," Putin’s aide said.

Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union will be in spotlight at the talks. The relevant treaty came into force on August 12, 2015.

Russian Defense Ministry creating post-Soviet military bloc crisis response center

The member-states have also stepped up efforts on agreeing the collective security strategy for up to 2025 which envisages a range of meetings and consultations of experts

DUSHANBE, September 15. /TASS/. A crisis response center of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is being established on the basis of Russia’s Defense Ministry, a source in Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"An effort is underway on creating a crisis response center of the CSTO on the basis of Russia’s Defense Ministry," the source said.

The plans on setting up the center were announced at the December 2014 session of the organization’s decision-making body, the Collective Security Council, the source added.

The member-states have also stepped up efforts on agreeing the collective security strategy for up to 2025 which envisages a range of meetings and consultations of experts, he said.

A spokesman for the Russia-led military alliance of former Soviet states said in late June the crisis response center will help member-states to deal with major security threats.

He said that the new center would be based at an information technology complex for software and hardware development, which is currently being equipped in one of the Russian Defense Ministry’s military towns near Moscow.

The CSTO, established in 1992, is headquartered in Moscow and comprised of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. In 2002, the six post-Soviet states agreed to create the CSTO as a military alliance.

CSTO Thwarts 50,000 ISIL Recruitment Websites in Central Asia

A joint security operation by Russia and its five East European and Asian partners has foiled 50,000 recruitment websites linked to the Islamic State militant group targeting Central Asian would-be jihadists, the head of the CSTO security organization said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The operation, codenamed Proxi, was launched by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to thwart ISIL’ ambitious recruitment program in Central Asia. The CSTO group comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

"A total of 57,000 websites were identified as a threat to collective security. The activities of 50,000 of them were suspended, some [further] webpages are being looked into," CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said at the organization’s summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

There has been a significant rise in terrorist-linked online activities in the Central Asian region, Bordyuzha noted.

CSTO’s key objective is to fight against "international terrorism and other nontraditional threats to security," the organization's website says. It cooperates with the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and other regional and international organizations.

The ISIL threat has come to the forefront of global anti-terrorism efforts since its rise in the Middle East in summer 2014. The group has been trying to rally more people around its cause of creating a caliphate based on a strict version of Islamic law.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/world/20150915/1027014422.html#ixzz3lo1VW6AN

Post-Soviet security bloc miltiary drills kick off in Armenia

The drills are codenamed Enduring Brotherhood and are aimed at preparation and conduct of peacekeeping operations by the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Caucasus

YEREVAN, September 30. /TASS/. The Joint exercise of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) peacekeeping forces codenamed Nerushimoe Bratstvo (Enduring Brotherhood) is beginning in Armenia on Wednesday.

The drills are held in accordance with the decision of the CSTO Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of CSTO Security Council Secretaries, adopted in December 2014. The maneuvers are aimed at "preparation and conduct of peacekeeping operations by the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Caucasus region of collective security."

The exercise will involve representatives and units of the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, which are members of the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces. In addition, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as the Joint Staff and the Secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation will attend the drills.

The Armenian Defense Ministry reported previously that "the commanders and staffs during the exercise will drill preparation of a peacekeeping operation and command and control of units of the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces."

The Russian army is represented at the drills by 100 troops of the peacekeeping brigade of the Central Military District and 10 military hardware units, a Defense Ministry official told TASS.

The total number of troops contributed to the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces is about 4,000, including about 500 officers of law enforcement bodies and the emergencies ministries. The Nerushimoe Bratstvo peacekeeping exercise is held annually since 2012.

The Collective Security Treaty was signed on May 15, 1992 in Tashkent, by the heads of six countries: Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Subsequently, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus joined it. The treaty came into force on April 20, 1994. In April 1999, the Protocol on prolongation of the Collective Security Treaty was signed by six of them (except for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan).

The key objectives of the CSTO are ensuring national and collective security, intensive military-political cooperation and integration, foreign policy coordination on international and regional security issues, the establishment of multilateral cooperation mechanisms, including a military component, the development of cooperation in the counteraction to modern challenges and security threats, such as international terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal migration, transnational organised crime, information and cyber security, military-technical cooperation.