Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
January 17, 2007 Wednesday

SEVERAL UNITED REGIONAL COMMANDS OF ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE ARE TO BE
ESTABLISHED IN CIS

Russian Air Force Second-in-Command Lieutenant General Aitech Bijev
told INTERFAX – Military News Agency that the united
Russian-Belarussian regional antiaircraft defense systems to be
established in the nearest future would become an example for
analogous military structures in the Caucasus and Central Asia to be
formed afterwards.

"I do not doubt that the military leaders of the two countries will
sign an accord soon that will permit joint use of forces and means of
the United Regional System to senior officers of the Russian and
Belarussian armies," Bijev said.

Bijev said that meeting of the Coordinating Committee of the CIS
United Antiaircraft Defense System was to take place in Yerevan,
Armenia, on February 17. The new United Regional System of
antiaircraft defense of the Caucasus will be presented there. "We
will acquaint all CIS air force and antiaircraft forces commanders
with the Russian-Armenian system," Bijev promised.

Following the Russian-Belarussian United Regional System, the one in
the Caucasus will become the second step in the program of putting
all of Russia in a ring of antiaircraft defense means. Establishment
of the Central Asian system afterwards will become the third step.

The Coordinating Committee will also decide in what country
(Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan) the Central Asian United Regional System
will have its headquarters established. "We will probably decide in
favor of Tashkent," Bijev said. "On the other hand, both countries
are more or less even in terms of readiness to accommodate the
headquarters, so nothing has really been decided yet."

Source: INTERFAX news agency, January 15, 2007

Translated by A. Ignatkin