Belarusian dictator signed documents about CSTO punitive forces

A package of documents on the CSTO Collective Rapid Response Force (CRRF) has been signed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, has been received by the Secretariat of the organisation.

“The package of documents includes the agreement on the CSTO CRRF and the resolution of the CSTO Collective Security Council “On the composition of the Collective Rapid Response Force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization”, and two documents on the structure of the Secretariat and on changes in the structure and additional functions of the CSTO United Headquarters, “Interfax-AVN” was informed on Tuesday by a representative of the Secretariat.

He reminded that earlier, on June 14, 2009 that package of documents was signed at the CSTO Council of Collective Security by head of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. “Uzbekistan expressed special position on a number of issues then, and the delegation of Belarus failed to arrive to the session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation because of the so-called “milk war”, the interlocutor of the agency said.

As said by him, in this way Lukashenka completely fulfilled his promise to sign documents, which had been stated by him in early October at the meeting with Russian journalists.

“Lukashenka has also signed other documents studied at June session of the CSTO Council,” said the interlocutor of the agency. In particular, the document on the main principles of the creation of a covert command and control system for the CSTO collective security forces; a decision on main directions of action of the CSTO countries on forming the system of collective response to emergency situations for the period until 2012; a decision on the plan of action of the CSTO countries on forming the collective system of counteraction to illegal migration of citizens of third countries for the period until 2012, and so on.

The decision to create the Collective Rapid Response Force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization was adopted at the summit of the organisation on February 4 2009 in Moscow.

The Collective Rapid Response Force is allegedly intended for defence of territorial integrity, sovereignty and promotion of security, overcoming large emergency situations at the territory of the CSTO countries. In peacetime the CRRF are to be deployed in the place of their home stations in national territories, and in a special period they are to be used in line with decisions of the Collective Security Council.

As www.charter97.org informed, Alyaksandr Lukashenka refused to sig the agreement on CRRF first. Experts said that in this way he took revenge on Russia for a ban on Belarusian milk export.

Lukashenka didn’t sign the agreement even after Russian-Belarusian milk war ended, and relations between Minsk and Moscow improved. On September 29 during West 2009 large-scale military exercise held in Belarus he talked to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, and after that he promised not only to sign everything, but to head the CSTO.

Independent experts believe that the CRRF are created to suppress riots amid the crisis in the CSTO member states.

The CSTO includes f Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Armenia and Uzbekistan.