Krasnaya Zvezda, Defense Ministry, Russia
March 14 2008

Russia: Rubezh 2008 drill not aimed against Azerbaijan, any third
country

by Oleg Gorupay

Approximately 4,000 men, including servicemen from three states that
are members of the ODKB [CSTO: Collective Security Treaty
Organization], Russia, Armenia, and Tajikistan, will be engaged in
the Rubezh 2008 joint command-post exercise of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization, which will be held in the summer and
fall on the territories of Armenia and Russia.

The particular feature of this exercise is that questions of the
preparation of a member of the CSTO for repulsing aggression from
outside have been put to it for the first time, and this subject
matter is being considered at so high and representative a level for
the first time. Only command-post exercises with command elements of
the organization and the CSTO Collective Rapid-Deployment Force
(KSBR) were, in effect, conducted at the last such exercise and with
similar subject matter held on a lesser scale in 2005 in Tajikistan.

Last year’s Rubezh 2007 exercise was held in Tajikistan also and was
of an anti-terrorist nature. Approximately 500 servicemen from the
armed forces of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan, 50 pieces of
armoured equipment, an Su-25 flight, and a flight of Mi-24
helicopters took part in its active phase at the range of the 201st
Russian Military Base. Uzbekistan, which was represented by an
operational task force of the country’s armed forces, took part in
the exercise for the first time.

The present exercise will be conducted in four stages. The first and
second are stages of the political level, during which institutions
of state power of Armenia will make the decision to prepare to
repulse the aggression. That is, proposals to the CSTO Collective
Security Council with a request from official Yerevan for military
and military-technical assistance will be prepared.

As Major-General Sergey Chuvakin, chief of a command element of the
CSTO Joint Staff, observed, this exercise is being conducted in
accordance with a plan that is approved annually by the CSTO Defence
Ministers Council (SMO). In accordance with the available experience,
the second stage will be conducted in Moscow under the auspices of
the CSTO Joint Staff, and the entire operations personnel of the
Joint Staff, the Collective Security Treaty Secretariat, and task
forces from all the CSTO defence ministries will take part. It was
emphasized here that all the activities of preparation of the
exercise have to date been performed in accordance with the plan.

The Joint Staff is the permanent working body of the CSTO and the
organization’s Defence Ministers Council responsible for the
preparation of proposals and the implementation of decisions
pertaining to the military component of the Collective Security
Treaty.

The third and four stages are battlefield. A defensive operation will
be organized at the third state, at the fourth, the direct conduct of
a joint defensive operation will be rehearsed. Armoured equipment,
cannon and rocket artillery, army, ground-attack, and fighter
aviation, air-defence systems, the corresponding engineer subunits
and signals subunits from the armed forces and border troops of
Armenia and the 102d Russian Military Base stationed in Gyumri, and
an air-assault subunit from Tajikistan will be taking part in the
active phase of the joint command-post exercise in Armenia (Marshal
of the Soviet Union Bagramyan Republic of Armenia MoD Training
Centre) as a "computer-generated force". We would note particularly
that this is a "computer-generated force," not units and subunits in
their regulation strength since Rubezh 2008 is not a tactical; it is
a command-post exercise. As Major-General Vitaliy Kormiltsev, chief
of joint operational and combat training of the CSTO Joint Staff,
emphasized: "the exercise could thus be classed as brigade-level".

Although the enlisted troops will really be in operation here, he
said, it will only be in the role of "computer-generated force". The
other CSTO members will be represented by task forces of their
defence ministries.

According to Colonel Ishkhan Matevosyan, first deputy chief of the
operations command of the Armed Forces of Armenia Main Staff, battle
alert, a march, the takeup of defensive positions, field firing, and
a switch to a counteroffensive are envisaged for the participating
units and subunits. The dimensions of the range permit division-level
exercises, no problems with the rehearsal of assignments by artillery
or aviation are anticipated, therefore.

All overseas diplomats and military attaches accredited in Yerevan
will be invited to the joint command-post exercises (SKShU) of the
CSTO members. "Knowing the sort of attention that the SKShU will
attract and wishing to prevent negative comments, it has been decided
to invite to the function all foreign diplomats and military attaches
accredited in Yerevan," Colonel Ishkhan Matevosyan emphasized. He
observed here that the Rubezh 2008 exercise is not directed against
any third country. This is a scheduled exercise, which was officially
announced back last October. "Only defensive assignments will be
rehearsed in the SKShU," the spokesman for Armenia’s MoD said. The
general scenario of the exercise has been worked up such that no
state may be traced in its true borders and names. Nor are any other
countries, including those contiguous with Russia and Armenia, hinted
at. In addition, there is no mention of Russia itself either. The
leadership of the exercise and the CSTO asks that the press and
politicians refrain from drawing such parallels, therefore. Besides,
all the operations in the course of the exercise will be performed in
full accordance with and with consideration of the rules of
international law and the accords concluded in the CSTO and CIS
format.

As Nikolay Bordyuzha, CSTO general secretary, had observed somewhat
earlier, the Rubezh 2008 exercise is in no way directed against
Azerbaijan. He said that "in making the decision to conduct the
exercise we took account, of course, of the entire complexity of the
situation in the Caucasus and made every effort to avoid giving
Azerbaijan the impression that these exercises could be staged
against it." As Nikolay Bordyuzha emphasized, "the exercises will be
of a command-post nature, there will no be large redeployments of
military contingents, that is."

Nor will the preparation or conduct of the exercise be influenced by
the domestic political situation in Armenia. According to
Colonel-General Seyran Oganyan, chief of the main staff of the
country’s armed forces, "the situation in the country will not
influence the military exercises since international treaties and
plans of military cooperation, as part of which it is that we conduct
exercises, are in effect here."

I would like to mention also the non-fortuitous nature of the choice
of exercise partners. Armenia performs a key role as part of the
joint force of the Caucasus collective-security region. The
leadership and the community of the republic see in Armenia’s
participation in the CSTO obvious advantages primarily as regards use
of the collective potential of the CSTO in support and advancement of
the interests of national security and also use of the resources of
political support in international affairs that are available to the
organization. It is by no means accidental that official Yerevan has
been actively engaged in preferential military-technical cooperation
and the system of training of military personnel within the CSTO.
Representatives of the republic in the statutory bodies of the
organization have been active, involved participants in the process
of transformation of the CSTO into an all-purpose security structure.

[translated from Russia]