RUSSIA LEADS WAR GAMES
By Isabel Gorst in Moscow
FT
October 16 2009 19:07
A Russian-led rapid reaction force, portrayed as the Kremlin’s
answer to Nato, held its first war games on Friday in Kazakhstan,
stoking concerns among some central Asian states at the nature of
its military ambitions in the region.
Seven thousand troops participated in the war games, the first by the
force formed this year by the Collective Security Treaty Organisation,
a loose security grouping between Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Kremlin says the CSTO needs dedicated forces to combat growing
security threats.
But UzbekÂiÂstan, the former Soviet country with the biggest army
after Russia, refused to join the war games. Belarus, which has
leaned towards the west this year amid a trade dispute with Russia,
was also absent.
The Kremlin website pictured Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president,
clad in military fatigues and flanked by the presidents of Kazakhstan,
Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan watching the exercises at the
Matybulak training ground in east Kazakhstan.
Russia said it would commit its 98th airborne division and 31st air
assault brigade to create a force "on a par with Nato".
Nikolay Bordyuzha, the secretary-general of the CSTO, said this week
the force would defend member countries against foreign attack and
combat organised crime, terrorism and the growing scourge of drug
trafficking from Afghanistan. It will not join Nato forces fighting
the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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