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Military drills

Post-Soviet security bloc kicks off Interaction 2019 drills in Volga area

The CSTO’s exercise Interaction 2019 is being held as part of the post-Soviet security bloc’s Combat Brotherhood 2019 operational and strategic drills

© Nozim Kalandarov/TASS

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) kicked off exercise Interaction 2019 for its Rapid Reaction Force at the Mulino training range in the Nizhny Novgorod Region in the Volga area, the press office of the CSTO Joint Staff announced on Wednesday.

"The Collective Rapid Reaction Force is the most numerous and outfitted with modern armament, military and special hardware component of the CSTO’s collective security system of forces and resources. The Collective Rapid Reaction Force is assigned the basic tasks of responding to challenges and threats to the security of the organization’s member states," Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov said at the ceremony of opening the drills.

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During the drills that will run on October 16-18, the troops from the CSTO’s six member states will practice preparing and conducting a joint operation to localize a border armed conflict in the East European region. The CSTO personnel will search for illegal armed formations, conduct an airborne operation to land by various methods, launch an assault on a terrorists’ base and eliminate illegal armed formations.

The drills will also include a live-fire exercise. Army and operational-tactical aviation will assist the CSTO’s Rapid Reaction Force. The border guard services of the CSTO member states will interact with the Rapid Reaction Force during the drills.

The drills are being held under the command of Russia’s Western Military District Commander Colonel-General Alexander Zhuravlyov. The exercise involves about 3,000 troops and over 300 weapon systems. Military contingents from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are taking part in the drills along with the operational groups of the CSTO Joint Staff, airborne and special operations forces, the command of military transport aviation, and also Russia’s Interior and Emergencies Ministries.

The CSTO’s exercise Interaction 2019 is being held as part of the post-Soviet security bloc’s Combat Brotherhood 2019 operational and strategic drills.

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