Moscow Is Assembling A Military Bloc To Counterbalance Washington
Moscow Is Assembling A Military Bloc To Counterbalance Washington
Quote:
A new military bloc may be formed in the Caspian Sea area
Author: Igor Plugatarev
A new military bloc may be formed in the Caspian Sea area at some time in the future. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called for such a bloc during a visit to Azerbaijan yesterday. Ivanov said that he sees this alliance as a combined armed force controlled the by five Caspian Sea states (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan) and used to counter WMD proliferation and other threats or challenges.
Admiral Vladimir Masorin, Commander of the Russian Navy, then stated that Russia has an interest in "establishing a joint operational formation for the Caspian Sea, provisionally called Casfor." He also noted that Moscow's initiative has already been supported by almost all the Caspian states, "with only Turkmenistan yet to express its opinion."
According to Ivanov, Casfor (if established) would take the form of "combined forces, including border guards and special services as well as Defense Ministry personnel, for the purpose of countering real threats and challenges existing in the Caspian Sea area." Moves to establish Casfor are already in progress: the Foreign Ministry plans to host a meeting in Moscow for the five Caspian states, inviting foreign affairs officials, the military, and border guards, "to discuss the idea and the strategy, and the kind of force this will be."
The experts we approached for comments showed varying levels of optimism about the Casfor idea.
Vitali Shlykov, a member of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council: "Given that the status of the Caspian Sea has not yet been completely defined, it's hard to assess whether the prospect of the Caspian states establishing a combined armed force is realistic."
Ivan Safranchuk, director of the Center for Defense Information's Moscow office, maintains that "Russia has the greatest interest in establishing a military group for the Caspian Sea." Justifiably, Moscow is assuming that Baku and Ashgabat regard Russia and the West as the alternatives between which they'll have to choose. And in this configuration, says Safranchuk, Russia is using various trump cards in the form of exerting pressure, making it clear that other countries won't find it easy to abandon Russia in favor of joining NATO or moving beneath the wing of the United States. "At the same time, however, Moscow also seems prepared to let its headstrong partners retain some priorities - that is, advantageous cooperation. In this case, military cooperation."
From the military standpoint, says Safranchuk, establishing Casfor would offer Russia additional advantages in military- technical cooperation (arms sales). Clearly, this kind of armed force for the Caspian Sea could only be established if Russian arms and military hardware are used as the platform - especially given that Russia and Kazakhstan are cooperating already within the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization, and for the other states this could offer access to military-technical cooperation on concessional terms.
