Translated material
No worse than NATO
Russia has created its own anti-crisis military-economic alliance
It seems that all participants - the presidents of Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, as well as Armenia and Uzbekistan - were pleased with the results of yesterday's Moscow extraordinary summits of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC). After Tashkent announced the suspension of its membership in the EurAsEC last fall , Uzbek President Islam Karimov joined his Armenian counterpart Serge Sargsyan - both of them participated only in the CSTO meeting. As a result of the summits, new interstate armed forces and a special anti-crisis fund were created. Something like NATO and the IMF under the auspices of Russia.One of the main beneficiaries of the summits was the President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev . He takes away from Moscow a package of signed agreements on receiving financial assistance and investments from Russia totaling more than $2 billion. The host of the summit is Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (yesterday he made a slip at a press conference, “I, as a country, am the organizer of the summit , grateful to its participants...") also did not remain a loser.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko was extremely pleased with the previously unprecedented results of the Supreme State Council of the Russian-Belarusian union state that took place the day before. “This hasn’t happened for ten years,” the dad admired the work of his Russian colleague, “and now the EurAsEC has to go through this result.” Mr. Lukashenko, having taken office as the next chairman of the EurAsEC, knew what he was talking about. This is probably why he so sincerely lamented that the Russian media “ignored” the work of the Supreme State Council. Mr. Medvedev here stood up for the domestic press: “After all, the Russian media showed it, I watched...” “Well, yes,” said the old man, “only after Arshavin’s soap opera.” Thus, the story of the long-suffering transfer of the Zenit St. Petersburg striker to the London Arsenal came into the focus of attention of the top leaders of the union state. However, this topic did not receive further development at the summit.
Obviously, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev received a fair share of gratitude for his integration efforts. He was remembered in connection with the decision of the heads of the EurAsEC to create a $10 billion anti-crisis fund, the idea of which was initiated during last year’s December informal meeting of the five CIS leaders at the Kazakh resort of Borovoye. Yesterday it became known that out of the declared amount, 7.5 billion will be contributed by Russia, a billion by Kazakhstan, and the remaining 1.5 billion should be contributed between the three of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. No one specified when and from what funds these amounts would be contributed.
Meanwhile, this detail seems especially interesting, since, as Dmitry Medvedev said, the fund was created to help only countries that require urgent financial assistance to stabilize the situation in the event of acute social problems or “cash gaps” in the repayment of external loans. Considering that of the trio of states Belarus-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan, all except Kyrgyzstan, which has just received Russian loans, are in dire need of such assistance now, the question of contributing the missing $1.5 billion hangs in the air.
The President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, also got his due, having overcome both snow drifts at home and resentment towards Moscow and Tashkent and finally reached Moscow. On the sidelines of the summit, its organizers, without much fuss, brought important information to the attention of the press. The opportunity to pay a working visit to the Russian capital to the President of Tajikistan, which was missed on February 2, as apparently considered in Moscow for a good reason, will be returned before the end of this month. And by the end of this year, Mr. Rakhmon will be expected in Moscow on a state visit. It seems that important decisions in the field of bilateral relations should be prepared for this event. Perhaps this concerns precisely those Russian promises that were made regarding participation in the construction of several medium-power hydroelectric power stations in Tajikistan, and even the Rogun hydroelectric power station itself. That is, the very promises that Mr. Rakhmon suspected Moscow of breaking last week.
It seems that the only participant in the summit who left Moscow yesterday “empty-handed” was Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. According to Vremya Novostei, he also hoped to receive a billion-dollar loan from Russia. This, as it turned out, was one of the main reasons that forced Mr. Sargsyan to abandon all his affairs at home and come to Moscow to participate in the gas summit in January, which surprised many observers: after all, Serzh Sargsyan was then the only head of state - - participant of the summit. However, even on his second visit, the President of Armenia did not achieve his main goal. It is difficult to say today whether Yerevan will have to join the ranks of the EurAsEC for this.
Many members of the CSTO Presidential Club might not be too upset if Uzbekistan, following its actual withdrawal from the EurAsEC, once again left the CSTO. This can be judged by the disappointment, if not the annoyance, with which on the Kremlin sidelines yesterday members of some delegations spoke about yet another “dissenting opinion” expressed by Islam Karimov during the discussion of the main item on the CSTO summit agenda - the creation of the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces ( KSOR). The President of Uzbekistan spoke out against Nursultan Nazarbayev’s proposal to include the forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the special services in the military component of the CRRF. Considering the goals for which, according to Dmitry Medvedev, the CRRF is created - “repelling military aggression, conducting special operations and fighting terrorism” - such an addition to the military component, according to the other CSTO members, seems quite logical and justified.
Meanwhile, the Russian President, for whom the idea of creating the CRRF, judging by his speech yesterday, seems especially important, twice yesterday drew the public’s attention to the fact that “the CRRF will be well equipped and will act no worse than the forces of the North Atlantic Alliance.” “We have full-fledged forces, they are quickly deployed, but so far we have not had to deploy them,” Mr. Medvedev repeated. “We will create full-fledged, well-trained Collective Forces that will work in a normal situation.” What “in a normal situation” means remains not entirely clear.
Also, the words spoken by Mr. Dmitry Medvedev in response to a question from an American news agency whether the closure of the American air base in Kyrgyzstan, which was decided in Bishkek, would not lead to destabilization of the situation in Central Asia, did not clarify the situation too much. Noting that the decision of the Kyrgyz leadership is “sovereign,” Mr. Medvedev said that the fight against terrorism does not come down to the number of “found bases,” but depends on the development of modern political systems in certain countries.
Obviously referring to Afghanistan, the Russian president once again repeated the thesis that democracy cannot be imposed by force without taking into account historical and cultural characteristics. Then, recalling Russia’s initiative to hold a special conference on Afghanistan under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Mr. Medvedev confirmed Moscow’s readiness to cooperate with other states in a comprehensive solution to the problems of combating terrorism.
However, Russia's permanent representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, hastened to clarify this issue yesterday, frankly declaring that the vacant space at the Bishkek airport after the Americans leave there will be taken by the Russian military. Although President Medvedev has just spoken out against “stuck bases.” According to Vremya Novostey, in Bishkek itself, nothing has yet been heard about the interesting idea voiced by Mr. Rogozin.