Seven former Soviet nations including Russia will form a joint rapid reaction force, the Russian president said Wednesday — as the Kremlin seeks to squeeze the United States out of energy-rich Central Asia.
The announcement was made just a day after Kyrgyzstan said it would end its U.S. lease of a key air base that supports military operations in Afghanistan. Evicting U.S. troops from Kyrgyzstan would mark a victory for Moscow in its battle for influence in what it considers its historic backyard.
President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia, Armenia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — had reached the agreement to form a new security force during a summit of the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization on Wednesday.
The force would add a military dimension to the Moscow-dominated alliance, which so far has served mostly as a forum for consultations.
The Russians are reverting to paranoid freak status and want to suck in their separated six brethren. You can never separate too far from Mother Russia if Moscow has anything to say about it.
And our secondary line of suppy to Afghanistan goes through this grouping of states. No, I won't worry about having 60,000 American troops in Afghanistan at all!
