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What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
March 17, 2004, Wednesday
"ANTI-NATO" EXPANSION
SOURCE: Vremya Novostei, March 17, 2004, p. 2
by Nikolai Poroskov
Anatoly Kvashnin, chairman of the CIS committee of chiefs of general
staff, announced that the Commonwealth Southern Shield 2004 staff
command exercises, scheduled for April, will not take place then.
This doesn't mean the exercises have been canceled due to funding
shortages, as often occurred in the 1990s, or armies of CIS countries
have bogged down in disputes and cannot coordinate the plan and aims
of the exercises. The situation is quite the reverse. According to
Anatoly Kvashnin's statement at the first assembly of the Joint Staff
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, which unites
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan),
Boundary 2004 - a tactical exercise - will be held in second half of
2004 instead of the staff command exercise scheduled for April.
Besides forces of the CIS and the CSTO (meant are the units of the
Collective Rapid Deployment Forces and the Russian aviation stationed
at the Kant airfield in Kyrgyzstan), the exercise will involve units
and military observers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO). In other words, the list of participants will be extended at
the expense of Uzbek and Chinese military (the SCO includes Russia,
China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan).
Military experts say that attempts to expand and enhance the
Euro-Asian military-political alliance are evident. In fact, CSTO
Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha announced that over a month ago.
He admitted that some CIS states are involved in the talks on their
potential joining the CSTO. Quite possibly, we may soon evidence
expansion of an "anti-NATO."
The speed with which the military component of the CIS is gaining
strength allow for that assumption. The CSTO Joint Staff started
functioning on January 1, 2004, but has already managed to merit
praises from chief of the Russian General Staff. "My assessment is
positive. The Joint Staff started working actively; what's important,
since its first moves are practical," Anatoly Kvashnin said
yesterday. In his words, establishing close cooperation between the
Armed Forces of Russia, CIS states and the CSTO structures has been a
success. In particular, over past six months the strength of the
Collective Rapid Deployment Forces doubled; in addition to general
troops it is planned to form the Special Forces in its structure.
One of the main tasks of the meeting, which will finish tomorrow, is
to develop a system of operations control for the Rapid Deployment
Forces.
Also under discussion are plans of joint operational and combat
training, an algorithm of actions of the collective forces for
maintenance of peace in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, an opportunity of
unifying the legislation in the sphere of defense and security,
Lieutenant General Vasily Zavgorodny, senior deputy chief of the CSTO
Joint Staff.
Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin
What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
March 17, 2004, Wednesday
"ANTI-NATO" EXPANSION
SOURCE: Vremya Novostei, March 17, 2004, p. 2
by Nikolai Poroskov
Anatoly Kvashnin, chairman of the CIS committee of chiefs of general
staff, announced that the Commonwealth Southern Shield 2004 staff
command exercises, scheduled for April, will not take place then.
This doesn't mean the exercises have been canceled due to funding
shortages, as often occurred in the 1990s, or armies of CIS countries
have bogged down in disputes and cannot coordinate the plan and aims
of the exercises. The situation is quite the reverse. According to
Anatoly Kvashnin's statement at the first assembly of the Joint Staff
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, which unites
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan),
Boundary 2004 - a tactical exercise - will be held in second half of
2004 instead of the staff command exercise scheduled for April.
Besides forces of the CIS and the CSTO (meant are the units of the
Collective Rapid Deployment Forces and the Russian aviation stationed
at the Kant airfield in Kyrgyzstan), the exercise will involve units
and military observers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO). In other words, the list of participants will be extended at
the expense of Uzbek and Chinese military (the SCO includes Russia,
China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan).
Military experts say that attempts to expand and enhance the
Euro-Asian military-political alliance are evident. In fact, CSTO
Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha announced that over a month ago.
He admitted that some CIS states are involved in the talks on their
potential joining the CSTO. Quite possibly, we may soon evidence
expansion of an "anti-NATO."
The speed with which the military component of the CIS is gaining
strength allow for that assumption. The CSTO Joint Staff started
functioning on January 1, 2004, but has already managed to merit
praises from chief of the Russian General Staff. "My assessment is
positive. The Joint Staff started working actively; what's important,
since its first moves are practical," Anatoly Kvashnin said
yesterday. In his words, establishing close cooperation between the
Armed Forces of Russia, CIS states and the CSTO structures has been a
success. In particular, over past six months the strength of the
Collective Rapid Deployment Forces doubled; in addition to general
troops it is planned to form the Special Forces in its structure.
One of the main tasks of the meeting, which will finish tomorrow, is
to develop a system of operations control for the Rapid Deployment
Forces.
Also under discussion are plans of joint operational and combat
training, an algorithm of actions of the collective forces for
maintenance of peace in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, an opportunity of
unifying the legislation in the sphere of defense and security,
Lieutenant General Vasily Zavgorodny, senior deputy chief of the CSTO
Joint Staff.
Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin