WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 12, 2008 Friday

BLOC BUILDING

THE FIVE DAY WAR DID MORE FOR CONSOLIDATION OF THE CIS COLLECTIVE
SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION THAN SIX YEARS OF PREVIOUS PEACE DID;
Russia and other members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization pledge to develop Organization’s military component.

The CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization was established in
2002 as a military bloc and comprised the regional army groups that
existed at the moment: Russian-Belarussian, Russian-Armenian, and the
Central Asia Fast Response Collective Forces. Political bulkhead was
erected overnight, but coordination of vital regulating documents took
time. The Organization meanwhile got down to common security problems
like international terrorism, trafficking, and illegal immigration. It
never formulated, much less proclaimed, a common position on major
military-political issues like installation of the American ABM
defense system in Europe or Treaty on Conventional Arms in Europe.

On the other hand, example of a genuine territorial threat and efforts
to repel it did have the desired effect in Organization leaders. They
immediate formulated a common position on the necessity to return to
the initial objectives of the alliance (military defense).

This turn of events brought up the question of expediency of analogs
with the Warsaw Treaty Organization and the structure’s willingness
and readiness to challenge NATO (it had been raised at the moment of
establishment).

In terms of strength, the Organization does not even bear a remote
resemblance to the erstwhile Warsaw Treaty Organization. Its rapid
deployment forces number 4,000 servicemen in 10 battalions. Russian AF
base in Kant, Kyrgyzstan, has 10 aircraft and 14 helicopters. NATO’s
instant response forces meanwhile comprise 18-20 divisions… But the
Organization never pretends to be a counterweight to the
Alliance. Previously modernized and properly deployed, forces of the
Organization may turn out to be quite efficient on a limited theater
of operations.

Russia’s military expenditures will inevitably go up. Russian military
budget was the largest in all of the Organization (about $34 billion)
in 2007. Of all Moscow’s potential allies, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
spent on national defense more than anyone else (correspondingly $1.2
billion and $900 million). Aggregate war spendings of six countries of
the Organization (without Russia) amounted to almost $3.3 billion in
2007.

Absence of ideological platform and multi-vector nature of members’
foreign policies only strengthen the "commercial" component if the
bloc’s structure.

Source: Vedomosti, September 9, 2008, pp. A1, A4

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress