Russia is trying to involve the CSTO countries in its adventure/CSTO
On June 20, a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries of the CSTO Security Council was held, before which there was a consistent information campaign of the aggressor on drawing this international structure, consisting of different countries depending on Russia in different ways, into Russian aggression against Ukraine.
< p>The main support for Russian aggression was the dictatorial regime of Belarus, which provided its territory, military and civilian infrastructure for an attack on Ukraine, but Lukashenka's troops have not yet been involved in large-scale military operations. Other CSTO states – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan actually took a wait-and-see attitude and the facts of the massive involvement of their military personnel in hostilities, in particular, as allegedly “volunteers”, were not recorded.
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< p> Therefore, these Russian invaders can prepare to “legally stay” in Ukraine as an alleged “peacekeeping contingent” by abusing the norms of the relevant CSTO agreement of 2007 and its protocol, which was hastily ratified by the states of the organization. Such a “status”, as an aggressor can model the situation, will “provide” an alleged “buffer zone”, which Russia criminally plans to create after losing its offensive.
It is interesting that in 2021 Russia actively lobbied for the inclusion of the regime of the Syrian dictator Assad in the CSTO, which obviously wanted to strengthen the “wing of hawks” in the organization. It is the Syrian mercenaries who have now been verified in the occupied territories of the south of mainland Ukraine.
Since the spring of 2022, Russia has been trying to influence in its favor the decision of the CSTO through the Parliamentary Assembly of this organization. In particular, on June 6, a delegation of this Parliamentary Assembly arrived in Yerevan, and the speaker of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, directly stated “the role of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly”, in particular on the so-called “organization of peacekeeping activities.”
” No use”
On June 18, before the meeting of the said CSTO Committee, Russia involved Ramzan Kadyrov, who stated in a traditionally aggressive style that the CSTO “is of no use” in a situation where allegedly “Russia helps everyone.” Kadyrov said that the CSTO does not help Russia in its aggression against Ukraine, because “these countries are afraid of sanctions.”
This “accusation” was answered by the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who stated that his “country was saved not by Russia, but by members of the CSTO” and that “in Russia, some people turn this whole situation around, claiming that Russia saved Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan should now forever serve and bow at the feet of Russia.” Subsequently, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, stated that Russia was unable to involve the CSTO in the war in Ukraine, since the Kremlin's allies do not want to be on a par with war criminals.
Indeed, at the aforementioned meeting of the CSTO Committee of Secretaries, a decision was made regarding various “areas of work”, for example, the fight against mercenaries and “increasing the level of biological protection”, but the issues of “peacekeepers”, which are of interest to the aggressor, obviously did not fall into the decision of the meeting. At the same time, it was stated that in the fall of 2022, at a meeting of the statutory bodies and a session of the CSTO, the issue of “improving the crisis response system” would be raised.
It is noteworthy that the functions of the chairman of the CSTO meeting on June 20 were performed by the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan, who although he is not far from cooperating with the structures of the “Russian world” in Yerevan, he can hardly be described as a direct “agent of the Kremlin”.
It is noteworthy that the Russian special services have been putting pressure on the Armenian authorities for several months, both by instigating “protest actions” in Yerevan and by initiating provocations that impede the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
We already wrote about the fiasco of the “visit” to Yerevan of the fake “Crimean representative” of the occupiers Georgy Muradov, the agenda of which was obviously ignored by the authorities of this Caucasian republic. According to information from circles close to these individuals, these attempts will continue, and the aggressor will continue to use fake “Crimean emissaries” to criminally “deepen contacts” in Armenia and Belarus on CSTO issues, which the Kremlin considers urgent.
Special opinion
At the same time, Kazakhstan becomes the main opponent of the Russian proposals in the CSTO. On June 5, the former head of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan, Alnur Musaev, who lives in Austria, “gave out” information that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, according to him, “surrendered” under pressure from Russia and expressed their readiness to provide military assistance to the aggressor on a confidential level.
< p>Musaev said that Russia is exerting unprecedented pressure on Kazakhstan to be on its side in aggression against Ukraine, including “direct negotiations between the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan and representatives of the Russian armed forces.”
Also, since the spring of 2022, Russia has been putting pressure on Kazakhstan by creating “circumstances” that impede the stable operation of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal in Novorossiysk. At the same time, both sides pretend in every possible way that these “circumstances”, including sudden “demining” and “technical problems”, are in no way connected with “political issues”, which Kazakh officials have repeatedly stated.
At the same time, it is reported that Kazakhstan and even the regime of the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko stopped the transportation of sanctioned Russian goods, including coal, on the railways of these countries. At the same time, Putin's visit to Belarus at the end of June was announced, during which the aggressor will obviously deliver another ultimatum to the Lukashenka regime.
Under such conditions, the statement of the Kremlin mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov on June 20 that “the question of the possibility of involving the CSTO forces in a special military operation in Ukraine was not considered” is nothing more than an attempt to “blur your eyes”, to lull vigilance.
Obviously, Russia will continue to try to “drag” some “documents” through the CSTO bodies, which it will manipulate in the future, primarily in the international arena, allegedly by “legalizing” its deeds in the occupied territories of Ukraine, in order to allegedly “divide responsibility” for aggression as a “mission”, at least formally, so to speak, “on paper”.
war and the struggle for the notorious “Russian hegemony”, including on the territory of Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states, elevated by the Kremlin to the rank of “confrontation” between NATO and the CSTO.
