{"id":11331,"date":"2022-01-16T15:23:58","date_gmt":"2022-01-16T12:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/moscow-minsk-looking-to-transform-csto\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"moscow-minsk-looking-to-transform-csto","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11331\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow, Minsk looking to transform CSTO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>The Kremlin, with assistance from Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka, used the political crisis in Kazakhstan to transform the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a security talk shop, into a tool for suppressing public protests. The alliance has adopted an anti-Western ideology.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Moscow held a CSTO emergency video conference on January 10 to discuss a response to anti-government protests in Kazakhstan. Vladimir Putin and Luka\u0161enka persuaded the other leaders to send troops for protecting critical infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Alliance customized to suppress protests<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Putin and Luka\u0161enka acted resolutely to reinvigorate the bloc, which has been merely a talk shop until recently. CSTO members did not back Moscow during its 2014 operation to annex Crimea. The CSTO stopped short of supporting its member Armenia during the 2020 clash with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover, Kazakhstan congratulated Baku on its victory in that war.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t After protests over a fuel price hike spread across Kazakhstan in early January, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed to the CSTO for help, claiming that international terrorist groups had infiltrated the country.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t At the video conference, Luka\u0161enka described the operation as a good precedent and urged the CSTO to revise \u201cjoint measures to counter terrorism and extremism.\u201d Belarusian security agencies have been extensively using the extremist and terrorist label against his critics after 2020 post-election protests.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t At the same conference, Putin emphasized the threat of \u201ccolor revolutions\u201d and described protests as a harbinger of a terrorist attack.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He and Luka\u0161enka seized the opportunity to draw the CSTO and its members into their anti-Western campaign. Putin hinted that the West might be behind protests in Kazakhstan by using definitions coined by Moscow such as \u201cMaidan technologies\u201d and \u201ccolor revolutions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cAn analysis of developments in Kazakhstan shows the presence, of course, of an external factor,\u201d Luka\u0161enka said. \u201cExamples are around us: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan. Belarus also has come under similar combined pressure recently \u2026 The organizers and leaders of events in Kazakhstan have hidden deep. But I am absolutely convinced that in Kazakhstan, like in Belarus and other countries, we will come to the same point.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Claims hard to reconcile with reality<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Unlike Russia and Belarus, Kazakhstan has maintained good relations with the West. Uzbekistan, which Luka\u0161enka said could be the next target, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also have better relations with the United States and the European Union. Why would the West seek to undermine the regimes in these countries?\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In an apparent reference to Islamic militants, Putin and Luka\u0161enka warned about the danger of \u201csleeper cells of terrorists and extremists.\u201d Based on their claims, the West allegedly uses Islamic militants (who it fights all over the world) to destabilize the regimes with which it maintains relatively good relations.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Many Russians can buy the theory, which is not based on common sense but on pre-dominant expectations in Russian society. The primitive propaganda does not work in real politics, however.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Anyhow, the intervention in Kazakhstan marked Russia\u2019s resurgence into its former sphere of influence. Russia seeks to block countries\u2019 evolution to preserve social and political status quo.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Russia could send its troops to Belarus in August 2020<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The CSTO troops spent just one week in Kazakhstan and returned to their bases. Their presence was quite symbolic. They were not involved in suppressing protests and did not clash with protesters. The contingent was present there just in case Tokayev loses control.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Its deployment considerably damaged Kazakhstan\u2019s international reputation as an independent nation state that the country has built for 30 years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Kazakhstan mission proves that Moscow could deploy troops to Belarus in August 2020 if protests turned violent there.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Governments short of public support are quite shaky and can survive only with external military support. Such governments are often referred to as failed states.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Although Tokayev has survived the scare, Kazakhstan has paid a high price \u2013 casualties, damaged buildings, tension with the West, greater dependence on Russia, an adverse investment climate and a national trauma from the foreign intervention.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On the other hand, the CSTO intervention has helped Tokayev to remove Nursultan Nazarbayev\u2019s clan from power. But he may find it hard to prove now that he is not Putin\u2019s puppet.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Luka\u0161enka weakens international isolation<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Moscow stands to benefit from the crisis. It has a tool in the CSTO to intervene in internal political crises in member states. It can use it to send troops at requests from \u201cthe people\u201d or \u201chealthy forces in society.\u201d The Kremlin used similar excuses to annex Crimea and back separatists in the Donbass region. Kazakhstan might have opened the Pandora box.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka took advantage of Kazakhstan\u2019s crisis to weaken his international isolation. The leaders of former Soviet republics seemed somewhat reluctant to engage with him after his controversial re-election. As he said at a video conference of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on December 10, the West encouraged CIS countries to align themselves with its efforts to put pressure on Belarus.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Belarusian troops received experience in being airlifted to a foreign country for the weeklong peacekeeping mission. It is unclear what that experience will lead to in the future.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d The Kremlin, with assistance from Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka, used the political crisis in Kazakhstan to transform the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a security talk shop, into a tool for suppressing public protests. The alliance has adopted an anti-Western ideology. Moscow held a CSTO emergency video conference on January 10 to discuss a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11331","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Moscow, Minsk looking to transform CSTO | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d The Kremlin, with assistance from Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka, used the political crisis in Kazakhstan to transform the Collective\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11331\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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