CSTO leaders have refused to consider the war in the Ukraine security threat – RBC

The Islamic Threat

On Tuesday in Dushanbe held a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, the chairperson of the organization in a narrow format discussed ten questions. At an expanded meeting, which was broadcast to the press, they pointed to the growing threat posed by terrorists and extremists, which makes it necessary to improve the organization. On the eve of the presidents managed to talk over dinner at the residence of President Emomali Rakhmon, decorated on the occasion of receiving the pyramids of watermelons, melons and pomegranates.

The general remains the threat of growing extremism and escalation of already smoldering conflicts and the emergence of new hotbeds of instability, said the President Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. According to him, in such a situation requires the strengthening of military cooperation between the countries. He suggested, for example, to decide on the creation of a regional air defense systems.

The Presidents of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and Almazbek Atambayev spoke about the growth of the terrorist threat: the growing popularity of the territory of Afghanistan, the ideology of “Islamic state” (LIH, banned in Russia as a terrorist organization). Recruitment in the territory tsentralnoazitaskih themselves into the ranks of the terror ists not so active, mainly residents of the region are connected to radical Islamists, leaving Afghanistan, Nazarbayev argued.

CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told about the increasing number of extremist websites – during the operation “Proxy” was found 57 thousand. sites for recruitment of terrorists, especially in Central Asia, 50 th. were closed. Work on the Internet as part of this operation, specialists of internal security and the police have started back in 2009, a year after the program for the formation of information security has been approved by the CSTO.

In the future, coordination of efforts to combat extremism and other security threats, as well as the exchange of information should go through the Center for crisis response. It is located in Moscow and will be paired with the Russian National Center for Control of Defense. On its establishment the foreign ministers of the military unit said in December last year.

Contact Syria

Vladimir Putin, speaking at an enlarged meeting of the latter. Unlike his predecessors, who did not stop in detail on the situation in Syria, the Russian president, by contrast, has devoted the situation in the Middle Eastern country most of his speech. He said that Russia will continue to provide military assistance to the armed forces of President Bashar al-Assad and urged to follow suit all stakeholders in the fight against terrorism the country, leaving the “geopolitical ambitions.” The wide front against terrorists in Syria, he said, could enter the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad, the Kurdish militia and reasonable antiasadovskaya opposition. Assad, according to Putin, ready in the course of solving the political crisis in the negotiations with the moderate opposition.

President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, in a conversation with the RIA Novosti news agency did not rule out that the Syrian issue could be an occasion for a meeting between Putin and US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in late September. Earlier, the US White House said that the meeting between the two leaders is not planned.

At the same time, Putin has reacted on the claim of Western politicians who are confident that the current crisis with refugees in Western Europe partly to blame Russia, which all four years of civil war in Syria is supporting the Assad regime. “People are fleeing from Syria primarily on the atrocities of terrorists, if Russia does not support Syria, the situation would be even worse than in Libya, and the flow of refugees would be even higher,” – said Putin. Earlier, a spokesman for the president said that Moscow will not provide Syrian refugees special preferences, but they can use its territory for transit to the European Union.

The personnel issue

Before the summit, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov announced that the two presidents will take personnel decisions – by the Secretary General of the organization and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Chief of Staff decided to appoint them Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov, commander of the Western Military District of Russia. He succeeds in this position other Russians – Alexander Studenikina, who held the post since 2012. In terms of system management the most experience, no doubt, have Russian military experts explain this assignment in a conversation with RBC Russian political analyst Sergei Mikheyev.

There will reshuffle in the political leadership of the unit. CSTO Secretary General will now be assigned on a rotating basis, decide the presidency. “It was deemed expedient to move to a system of rotation of the secretary general,” – said the press secretary general of the organization Nikolai Bordyuzha, occupying the post since 2003. The President instructed to work out the issue before the end of the year, he said. Who can lead the organization undertakes Mikheyev said. The national delegations also did without mentioning any names.

The decision on the secretary general of the procedure should consider foreign ministers, secretaries of security councils and the ministers of defense, their recommendations must approve the heads of state at the summit, said a diplomatic source RBC. The next summit of the presidents agreed to hold the second half of 2016 in Armenia, which took over the chairmanship in the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Following the meeting in Dushanbe, the presidents adopted a statement. In it, they expressed concern about the deteriorating situation on the borders of the zone of CSTO responsibility, unsettled regional conflicts and the intensification of the “Islamic state”, the transformation of Afghanistan into one of the world’s largest centers of drug production. Ukrainian crisis threat is named in the statement was not, although Ukraine is on the boundary of the zone of responsibility. No mention of Ukraine at the summit of the CSTO cost and in December last year.

Support measures

CSTO summit was held in the center of Dushanbe, at the Palais des Nations. At 150 km from the capital, the search for a group of armed militants of the rebel generals, former Deputy Defense Minister of Tajikistan Abduhalimov Nazarzoda that 4 September raised an armed rebellion. Since then, the shootings in the capital and surrounding areas killed 45 people. Due to the ongoing security operation throughout the country to mobile subscribers disabled the ability to send and receive SMS. It blocks access to Facebook, «Classmates” and other social networks. Reinforced police squads. During the summit, was limited to entry into the capital on the main highways.

support of President Rahmon to combat Nazarzoda summit expressed all his negotiating partners. Vladimir Putin is happening in Tajikistan called “incursions” and “attempts to destabilize the situation.” Official Dushanbe can always count on Russia’s support and assistance, although, in his estimation, the security forces of the republic successfully cope with emerging challenges, he said.