Belarus is
to contribute a contingent of some 5,000 to the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO)’s Collective Rapid Response Force (CRRF), Russia’s
newspaper Kommersant said on
Wednesday. The CSTO secretariat announced on October 20 that Belarus
had joined the security bloc's agreement on the establishment of the rapid
response force.
Referring to a source with the Russian defense ministry, Kommersant claimed that the Belarusian
contingent would consist of the Armed Forces’ special task brigade, the
counter-terrorist unit of the Committee for State Security, the interior
ministry’s special task unit and the emergency management ministry’s unit.
According to the newspaper, Belarus
“will become a key CRRF member state along with Russia
and Kazakhstan.”
Russia has pledged to
contribute 8,000 staff of its airborne division and assault landing brigade to
the joint force, while Kazakhstan’s
contingent is to include a 4,000-strong assault landing brigade and three more
units representing the country’s interior and emergency management ministries
and state security service, Kommersant
said. “Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
have limited [their contribution] to a battalion each, while Uzbekistan has refused to
participate in the establishment of the CRRF,” the paper noted.
