Kremlin-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports today that the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will form a peacekeeping force, just in case.
Recent events in Kyrgyzstan have inspired the need for "blue helmets," as the paper calls them. The CSTO includes neighboring Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, states carefully watching the Kyrgyz events, fearful the instability could spill over.
Yet, the troops will not be deployed in Kyrgyzstan without an invitation, the article says. For now.
In theory, work for blue helmets could be found already in Kyrgyzstan. Bloodshed in this Central Asian republic seriously worries not only its closest neighbors. It is known that Russia has several military [installations in Kyrgyzstan] including the airbase at Kant. Besides that, not a small number of our citizens live in Kyrgyzstan. There are enough Kazakhs and Uzbeks as well. In order to protect their interests, Moscow, Astana and Tashkent don’t need to hold large military operations.
[…]
In order to introduce a CSTO peacekeeping contingent into the republic, at least two conditions are needed: an official Kyrgyz government request and agreement by the heads of treaty member states. According to [CSTO Secretary General Nikolai] Bordyuzha, at an informal summit in Moscow [on May 8], the legitimacy of the power change in Kyrgyzstan was called into doubt. Therefore, a conversation about sending CSTO blue helmets to the republic is not occurring.
But, legitimate invite or not, will the "blue helmets" be willing to dip their toes into disturbances next time?
David Trilling is Eurasianet’s managing editor.
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