"The Red Star" newspaper: The CSTO countries are building a defensive system - from informative-political to material and technical

The Red Star, July 8

Authored by Alexander Alexandrov

The upcoming joint operational and strategic trainings of the CSTO Collective Forces “Combat Brotherhood - 2019” ("Boevoe Bratstvo - 2019") is intended to demonstrate the unity of the participating states in the issues of collective security. During the maneuvers that will unfold in the territory of four states at once, political and diplomatic tools, combat potential, as well as information and other non-military influence mechanisms are used to prevent and resolve military conflict in the area of responsibility of the organization.

This, in particular, was discussed at the press conference held in Moscow by the Acting General Secretary of the organization Valery Semerikov with the connection of sites from Minsk, Yerevan, Nur-Sultan and Bishkek. But the administrative head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization began the press conference with threats that are predominantly collective in nature.

According to the CSTO Secretary General, the situation in Afghanistan, especially on the Tajik-Afghan border, and its influence on the region of Central Asia, is in the center of attention of the organization’s member states. “Tension remains on the Caucasus direction due to the unresolved Karabakh conflict, as well as due to the process of NATO’s military development of the territory of Georgia,” Valerii Semerikov continued.

He also expressed collective concerns about the regular NATO trainings in Eastern Europe, near the borders of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation. Given that the alliance’s frank reluctance to work with colleagues from the CSTO, and instead to cooperate with each of the countries separately, only confirms the conclusions of the Russian Security Council on the possible preparation of a block of so-called color revolutions. This is confirmed by the attempts of cyber attacks on the objects of the national infrastructure of the countries of the organization.

The Crisis Response Center is called upon to respond to these threats, as the Acting Secretary General has made clear. The task of this Center is to provide information and analytical support to competent structures to combat the “hidden threat”. “The CSTO Crisis Response Center" deals with the monitoring of the politico-military situation in the area of state responsibility, identifying the prerequisites of crisis situations and analyzing the relevant situation,” Valery Semerikov explained.

The focus of the organization’s member states is on the situation in Afghanistan, primarily on the Tajik-Afghan border, and its impact on the Central Asian region.

The functionality of the center was involved in the course of a recent business game, in the framework of which a complex of measures of political and diplomatic response of the organization’s countries to a crisis situation that had arisen in provisional state was worked out. Further, this gave a start to the preparation of the operational and strategic exercises of the CSTO Collective Forces "Combat Brotherhood - 2019" ("Boevoe Bratstvo - 2019").

“In 2019, we will conduct six trainings in the territory of four states: the Republic of Belarus, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan,” said Valery Semerikov, answering journalists' questions. “According to our calculations, the total number of forces involved will be about 12,000.”

As reported, during the operational and strategic exercises of the CSTO Collective Forces "Combat Brotherhood - 2019" ("Boevoe Bratstvo - 2019") the whole complex of measures to prevent or restrain and resolve the military conflict with the subsequent restoration of peace will be worked out in a logical order. The national contingents of the troops against the background of a unified military-political situation, in a unified strategic plan, will work out the tasks according to their intended purpose by episodes.

For example, the trainings of anti-drug units of the CSTO countries "Thunder-2019" ("Grom - 2019") will be received by the Kyrgyz Republic in August. The actions of the surveillance units in the framework of the “Search-2019” ("Poisk - 2019") will continue the “Interaction-2019” ("Vzaimodeystvie - 2019") of the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces. It is also provided that the “Indestructible Brotherhood” ("Nerushimoe Bratstvo") maneuvers of the peacekeeping forces will be held together with the "Frontier-2019" ("Rubezh-2019") training of border guards in the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan.

All actions of the coalition groups in the Eastern European and Central Asian collective security regions will be accompanied by the transfer of troops as part of the Collective air forces trainings - "Air Bridge-2019" ("Vozdushnyy Most - 2019") and for the first time with a single logistical support during the joint actions of the "Echelon-2019" ("Eshelon - 2019") logistical support units.