A Russian-led rapid reaction force, portrayed as the Kremlin’s answer to Nato, held its first war games on Friday in Kazakhstan, stoking concerns among some central Asian states at the nature of its military ambitions in the region.
Seven thousand troops participated in the war games, the first by the force formed this year by the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a loose security grouping between Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Kremlin says the CSTO needs dedicated forces to combat growing security threats. But Uzbekistan, the former Soviet country with the biggest army after Russia, refused to join the war games. Belarus, which has leaned towards the west this year amid a trade dispute with Russia, was also absent.
The Kremlin website pictured Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, clad in military fatigues and flanked by the presidents of Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan watching the exercises at the Matybulak training ground in east Kazakhstan.
Russia said it would commit its 98th airborne division and 31st air assault brigade to create a force “on a par with Nato”.
Nikolay Bordyuzha, the secretary-general of the CSTO, said this week the force would defend member countries against foreign attack and combat organised crime, terrorism and the growing scourge of drug trafficking from Afghanistan. It will not join Nato forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
