Former Soviet republics plan joint military exercises Tajikistan

AP Worldstream
Mar 11, 2005

More than 3,000 troops from several ex-Soviet republics will hold
joint military exercises in early April in Tajikistan, a Defense
Ministry official said Friday.

The five-day war games will involve troops from Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, said Defense Ministry spokesman Zarobiddin
Sirodjev.

The countries are members of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization, the security arm of the Commonwealth of Independent
States, a loose 12-nation grouping of former Soviet republics.

Two other treaty members, Belarus and Armenia, will send observers
to the exercises, Sirodjev said.