CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION HOLDS SUMMIT - Eurasia Daily Monitor

CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION HOLDS SUMMIT - Eurasia Daily Monitor: "With President Vladimir Putin joining in, those same Russian officials criticized the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan for failing to suppress 'terrorist training bases, including those supported by certain intelligence services' (Putin) and for tolerating the booming export of Afghan heroin to Russia and Europe. Rating the coalition's efforts as 'very ineffective thus far,' Putin and other Russian officials hinted that the CSTO is prepared to consider stepping in. The meeting discussed possible measures to increase and coordinate assistance to Afghanistan, as well as setting up 'a working group to coordinate with Afghan structures' and a joint anti-drug authority.

Kyrgyzstan's post-revolution defense minister, Ismail Isakov, was authorized by the defense ministers' session to tell the press that the creation of a second Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan is intended. It will, apparently, carry a CSTO label. The CSTO's Russian-led military staff has been tasked to determine the possible missions, troop level, and armament of such a base, and whether it should be designated as temporary or permanent. Another post-revolution leader, Felix Kulov, had publicly called last month for the deployment of a second Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan, to be located in Osh."