Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 13, 2006 Wednesday
BORDER OF REPELLING AN AGGRESSION
by: Igor Plugatarev
CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION INDICATES ITS MILITARY
PROWESS IN THE EXERCISE IN BELARUS, KAZAKHSTAN, AND ARMENIA; An
update on military activeness of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization.
The ink on the protocol President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov,
signed and returned his country into the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization was barely dry (it happened on August 21), the
Uzbek leader already suggests a joint Uzbek-Kazakh military exercise.
Karimov proposed the exercise while on a visit to the capital of
Kazakhstan on September 4.
The suggestion was made right in the wake of Border’2006, an
international exercise on a fairly large scope (by Central Asian
standards) official Astana staged in the Caspian Sea under the aegis
of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. The Uzbek
military also invited to the exercise was present in the capacity of
observers. The impression is that it was truly sorry the Uzbek
national army was not involved. Had Tashkent truly participated, it
would have signified its bona fide membership in the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization as an international structure whose
weight, political and economic, is growing by the year.
The Caspian Warsaw Treaty
Exercise Border’2006 took place at the specially built training
facility 30 kilometers east from Aktau (a major port, former
Shevchenko) between August 23 and 26. This was the first such
exercise in Central Asia. Exercises of the Border series in
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the past had been but "rehearsals".
Almost 2,500 servicemen, more than 60 armored vehicles, nearly 50
artillery pieces and mortars, almost 40 aircraft and helicopters, and
14 ships and tenders (including surface combatants of the Russian
Caspian Flotilla) were involved in Border’2006. The assets drilled
operations of the Collective Rapid Response Forces in the Kazakh
direction. It was the first joint maneuver within the framework of
the future Southern Group of Armies of the Seven States (Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan).
The exercise near Aktau was tactical and ran for purposes of
research, according to Russian Ground Forces Second-in-Command
Colonel General Vladimir Bulgakov. As a matter of fact, Bulgakov even
ran a parallel with the exercises the Warsaw Pact had once run. "The
scale is different of course, but the quantity of troops does not
really matter. What matters is teaching commanders to view whatever
tasks they are facing from the standpoint of the Collective Rapid
Response Forces and to act accordingly," Bulgakov said. "It is
particularly important now because the experience gained in the
Warsaw Pact exercises is lot for us now. Senior officers involved in
Border’2006 share common training (in the Soviet Army – Nezavisimoe
Voennoe Obozrenie), but low-ranking officers and noncoms do not."
The exercise on the Caspian coast was an attempt to remedy that.
Exercise Commander General of the Army Muhtar Altynbayev (Defense
Minister of Kazakhstan) praised "the prowess of units of the
Collective Rapid Response Forces demonstrated in the course of the
exercise of the collective defense forces."
Still, Altynbayev also pointed out that "We know now that the CIS
Collective Security Treaty will work if necessary, that its
signatories will make their regular armies available if need be, in
accordance with their commitments."
This was an extraordinary statement indeed. "Military aid" to one
another has been so far a purely hypothetical issue, just a clause of
Article 4 of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
(aggression against any member of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization or signatory of the CIS Collective Security Treaty is
taken as an aggression against all). The clause, however, does not
specify exactly what is to be done about it. This ambivalence
generated doubts that whenever one country of the Organization is
attacked, all others will rush to its side and prevent it from being
left to face the danger all alone. Say, there is a distinct
possibility of a conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two
countries aspiring to claim Nagorno-Karabakh for their own. Neither
would hesitate to rattle sabers and each does so every now and then.
Nikolai Bordyuzha became general secretary of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization in 2002. He has never spared time or
effort to make Article 4 of the Charter more than just an empty
declaration. CIS councils of the heads of states and defense
ministers passed the necessary decisions.
Exercises
The Russian-Belarusian exercise Allied Security’2006 as the largest
in the post-Soviet zone became the first practical measure. Involving
almost 9,000 servicemen and even strategic aviation, it took place at
the testing site right near the westernmost border of the future
Union in June. In other words, it took place near Poland, a NATO
country. Allied Security’2006 became the first exercise to involve
units of the West Group of Armies of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization, the largest of all (200,000 men). Border’2006
became the second exercise of the series, another indication of the
readiness of members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization to strike back together.
It is reasonable now to expect the third analogous exercise to be
organized for the Group of Armies in the Caucasus, the one comprised
of units of Russian and Armenian armies (the Russian 102nd Military
Base near Yerevan 5,000 men strong). No official reports have been
made on it so far which is hardly surprising. It will mean an
immediate political scandal. Official Baku will immediately claim
that Moscow, a political negotiator between Azerbaijan and Armenia,
connives with "occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia."
It is known, however, that Atom-Antiterror’2006 exercise of the CIS
Counter-Terrorism Center will take place in Armenia in late
September. According to what information is available, one of the
clauses of the document reads, "Drill interaction between the
tactical group of the United Headquarters of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty with command structures of the Armed Forces of the
Republic of Armenia in accomplishment of combat missions with the
purpose of containment and elimination of terrorist gangs against the
background of destabilization in the Caucasus." Meaning that this is
not a petty conflict" (territorially petty, of course) over a nuclear
power plant seized by terrorists. The CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization makes it plain to potential aggressors that they’d
better keep their distance if they know what is good for them.
In other words, in less than a year the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization will formulate its military prowess in all
regional alliances of the countries comprising it. This move is
fairly important. A series of these major exercises is like a
ceremony of presentation of the Organization for the countries that
may be contemplating membership in it. Why not indeed? Bordyuzha once
told Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie that "since our problems are
nearly identical, it will be nice to have Ukraine cooperating with
the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization." Since Kyiv is
finally revising its views on the necessity of membership in NATO and
the Alliance has already been given a kick in the rear in the Crimea,
the Organization is quite correct to be as active as it is. Bordyuzha
also mentioned Georgia (as one of the founders of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization) and Azerbaijan…
"Make War" Sans Ministers…
Border’2006 organizers were only disheartened by absence of deputy
defense ministers. Official reports were absent of course, but
insiders told Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie that Kyrgyz Defense
Minister Lieutenant General Ismail Isakov was Altynbayev’s only
foreign counterpart to turn up for the exercise. Even Tajikistan was
represented by Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Ramil
Nadyrov.
Belarus didn’t even bother to send observers. As spokesmen for Minsk
reasonably asked, "Where is the Caspian Sea and where are we?"
Moreover, Belarusian Defense Minister Colonel General Leonid
Maltsev’s position is known: learn only from whoever has something to
teach you; and Minsk has been running exercises involving 3-4 times
servicemen more than 2,500 men for years now. Moreover, Russian
Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov preferred
Border’2006 to a tour of Far East military-industrial complex and a
meeting with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after that.
No need to say here that defense ministers’ very presence ups the
status of military exercises.
What Units Participated In Border’2006
Russia: tactical team of the Collective Rapid Response Forces;
company of the 77th Marine Brigade of the Caspian Flotilla, wing of
aircraft; 5 surface combatants of the Caspian Flotilla; more than 500
servicemen (mostly conscripts) of the Volga-Urals Military District;
tactical group. Almost 1,000 officers and soldiers in all.
Kazakhstan: Marine battalion; group of ships of the Coast Guards; Air
Mobile Forces units; army aviation; auxiliary units; tactical group.
One thousand and four hundred servicemen in all.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan: one platoon of motorized infantry each;
tactical groups. One hundred officers and soldiers in all.
Uzbekistan: military observers.
CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization: command structures,
headquarters, units of the Collective Rapid Response Forces; United
Headquarters and Secretariat of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization.
Source: Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie, No 32, September 8 – 14, 2006,
p. 2
Translated by A. Ignatkin
From: Baghdasarian