Six against drugs

At the CSTO summit they discussed how to deprive Afghanistan of a basic sector of the economy

Yesterday the next summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) took place in Moscow. It was attended by the heads of all six states that are members of the alliance: the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, as well as acting. President of Kyrgyzstan. The main topic of discussion was drug trafficking and the threat of Islamic terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. Although these problems are not of concern to all CSTO countries.

Objectively, different summit participants have different interests. Kyrgyzstan is struggling to recover from the sudden change of power. In addition, it has its own powerful drug trafficking - thanks to the poppy plantations of the Chui Valley. The leadership of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus is extremely frightened by “color revolutions” (including the Kyrgyz one) and would very much like to prevent such a development of events in their own country. Armenia is vitally interested in strengthening the military component of the alliance in case of even greater aggravation of relations with former CSTO member Azerbaijan. And therefore, she happily agreed to accept part of the equipment being withdrawn from Russian military bases in Georgia.

As a result, the topic of Afghanistan has become a kind of compromise between these sometimes polar interests - after all, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan know firsthand what Islamic extremists are, and Russia is once again ready to remind the world of its desire to play an important geopolitical role in the fight against international terrorism.

At a press conference at the end of the talks, Vladimir Putin painted a very gloomy picture of the state of modern Afghanistan. “We are seriously concerned that terrorist training bases are still operating on Afghan territory, including with the direct participation of some special services,” the Russian president said. “Afghanistan remains a source of ever-increasing drug trafficking,” Putin emphasized. And he admitted that “the effectiveness of this fight is still extremely low.”

The main practical outcome of the meeting was an agreement to create a special interstate structure to combat drug trafficking.

Ivan GORDEEV