All news

Putin to visit Tajikistan for post-Soviet security bloc talks next week — Kremlin

The Collective Security Treaty Organization comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Tajikistan on September 14 and 15 to participate in the next session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Kremlin press service said.

"During the summit in Dushanbe heads of the CSTO member-countries are due to discuss the main directions of allied cooperation and ways of boosting it," the press service said. It also noted that "special attention will be paid to the tasks of effectively responding to the most pressing military and political challenges, including the intensification of activities of terrorist and extremist groups, destabilization of the situation near the CSTO borders." In this context, the results of the exercises of the armed forces of the CSTO member-countries and joint activities of the law enforcement agencies will be considered.

The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

The Kremlin confirmed that "Putin’s separate meeting with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon would take place" in Dushanbe . Other bilateral contacts of the Russian leader are planned as well.

The leaders of Russia and Tajikistan spoke over the phone on Saturday night. According to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, during the conversation the Russian president described developments in Tajikistan as an attempt to destabilize the situation and assured his counterpart of Russia’s support of Tajikistan’s leadership. Peskov also noted that the leaders of the two countries had agreed to hold a separate meeting within the framework of the forthcoming CSTO summit in Dushanbe.

On September 4, two attacks on the country’s military facilities were conducted by armed groups - on the central office of the Defense Ministry and an Interior Ministry department in the city of Vahdat.