CSTO ARMIES TO STOP USING SOVIET WEAPONS, HARDWARE PAST 2020 – OFFICIAL

Interfax News Agency
Aug 25 2008
Russia

The countries comprising the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO) will have no military hardware made in the Soviet era times
after 2020, said Vladimir Poleshchuk, a deputy director of the Russian
Federal Military- Technological Cooperation Service.

"It would be naive to count on weapons and hardware built in the
Soviet era times as the basis of the weapons possessed by the CSTO
armies after 2020," Poleshchuk said. Such weapons and hardware would
be modernized by 2020, but after this time they need to be replaced
by modern weapons, he said.

Taking this into account, the CSTO member-states need to start
developing unified standards for weapons and military hardware already
now, Poleshchuk said.

The CSTO is comprised of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.