On February 4, member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) agreed and signed a draft decision on the creation of collective rapid reaction forces, or CRRF, the ITAR-TASS agency reports , citing a statement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev .

According to Medvedev, all members of the CSTO, which in addition to the Russian Federation includes Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, “agreed on the need to resolve” the issue of creating the CRRF. There is no word yet on the timing of the formation of joint rapid reaction forces.

Dmitry Medvedev clarified that CRRF units will be deployed on Russian territory. Meanwhile, it was previously reported that they will remain in their permanent locations on the territory of the CSTO countries and in normal times will be subordinate to the national ministries of defense.

Assistant to the President of Russia Sergei Prikhodko , for his part, noted that the CRRF will be used to “repel military aggression, conduct special operations to combat international terrorism, transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, as well as to eliminate the consequences of emergency situations.”

Some observers, however, believe that the formation of the CRRF and the transformation of the CSTO from a political to a military-political union is planned as a kind of response to the expansion of NATO to the east and the intentions of Western states to strengthen their military and political presence in Central Asia.

Secretary of the Security Council of Kyrgyzstan Adakhan Madumarov told Interfax that each CSTO member country will send one battalion to the collective forces. He said that at first Russia and Kazakhstan proposed that each country send a brigade there, but other countries spoke in favor of battalions. This decision was made.

The CSTO countries will acquire their own army