Anatoly Sidorov: The range of threats to military security of the CSTO Member States remains quite wide

Colonel General Anatoly Sidorov, Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, said this at a briefing on Thursday following a remote meeting with representatives of defence agencies of the CSTO Member States: the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan.
The remote meeting was dedicated to testing the readiness of command bodies and formations of the forces and assets of the CSTO collective security system to the joint operational and strategic exercise Combat Brotherhood 2021.
“A combination of factors contributes to the growing instability of collective security in the Central Asian region which in the future may provoke escalation of tension to a critical level,” Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff noted.
According to RIA Novosti, he also listed such threats as the scaling up of cyberspace operations, the continuing anti-Russian rhetoric of the ruling regime in Ukraine and the continued high tensions in Syria and Afghanistan.
Speaking about the situation in Afghanistan, Anatoly Sidorov stressed that most foreign countries demonstrate their readiness for dialogue with the Taliban (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) to normalize the situation.
“Behaviour of official representatives of foreign states suggests that they are forced to maintain a dialogue with them to prevent the growth of regional extremism,” he said.
According to TASS, Anatoly Sidorov recalled that the operational strategic exercise Combat Brotherhood 2021 in the Central Asian region on the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan will consist of a specialized exercise with the forces and assets of logistical support of the CSTO Troops (Collective Forces) Echelon 2021 to practice organization of logistical support during preparation and conduct of a joint operation; a specialized exercise with the intelligence forces and assets Poisk 2021 to practice organization and conduct of intelligence work in the interests of preparation and conduct of a joint operation. There will also be a joint exercise with the CSTO Collective Rapid Deployment Force (CRDF) Vzaimodeistvie 2021 to practice preparing and conducting a joint operation to localize an armed conflict in the border area.
Military contingents from all six CSTO Member States will participate in each of the exercises within the Combat Brotherhood. Formations of special forces and interested ministries and departments will also be involved, allowing to practice a wide range of issues and identify ways to further improve the joint training of command bodies and formations of the CSTO Troops (Collective Forces).
TASS reports that the exercises will involve more than 700 units of weapons and military and special equipment, including more than 650 armoured vehicles, up to 20 aircraft including Sukhoi Su-24MR and Su-25, more than 20 Mil Mi-8MTV and Mi-24 helicopters and 15 drones of various modifications and purposes.
TASS also reports, quoting the Chief of CSTO Joint Staff, that the plan for the joint operational strategic exercise Combat Brotherhood 2021 includes possible scenarios on the Tajik-Afghan border.
“When developing the concept of the exercise and the order of its conduct, we had to take into account possible scenarios on the Tajik-Afghan border,” TASS quotes Anatoly Sidorov.
Anatoly Sidorov expressed confidence that by considering the worst-case scenario during the exercise, the Collective Forces would not face it in a real situation on the border between the two states.
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