NO PLANS TO SET UP ARMENIAN BASES IN RUSSIA – OFFICIAL

Interfax
Sept 1 2009
Russia

Moscow, 1 September: Moscow and Yerevan are holding no talks on
deploying Armenian military bases in Russian territory as part of
the agreement on the creation of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force
[CRRF, also known under the Russian acronym KSOR], Vitaliy Strugovets,
spokesman for the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization]
secretariat, has announced.

"No such proposals have been made either by Armenia or by Russia,
and no negotiations are being conducted on the subject at the present
time," Strugovets told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday [1 September].

He was commenting on media reports about the possibility that Armenian
military bases could be set up in Krasnodar Territory and Dagestan from
among the units that form part of CSTO’s CRRF, to maintain security
at the transport infrastructure network related to supplies to Armenia.

"CSTO’s CRRF is not intended to maintain security at transport
infrastructures, and therefore any talk about the possibility of its
use in this area is groundless," Strugovets said. [Passage omitted:
Strugovets lists the objectives of the CRRF]

The agreement on the creation of the CRRF was signed at a session of
the Collective Security Council in Moscow on 14 June 2009.