RUSSIA

Times of India: Russia, former Soviet republics launch military-political bloc

MOSCOW: Russia and five former Soviet republics on Monday launched a
new military-political bloc in the East, similar to NATO of the US-led
western nations. At a summit near Dushanbe, leaders of Russia, Armenia,
Belorus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan formalised their collective
security pact into Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) with a charter
containing an article similar to the article 5 of NATO when an act of
aggression on one member-nation would be considered as an aggression on
all the member-nations, state-run 'Rossia" channel reported. "At Monday's
session we finally agreed on military and military-political
mechanisms, decided to set up a joint headquarters and a rapid deployment force,
and made a decision on coordinating political approaches," Russian
President Vladimir Putin said in his televised statement at the end of the CSTO
summit. "The purpose of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is
to guarantee the security, territorial integrity and sovereignty of its
member-countries," he said.