MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/. Nearly 12,000 troops from member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a post-Soviet security bloc, will take part in the Combat Brotherhood-2017 exercises, CSTO Joint Staff Chief Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov told reporters on Tuesday.

"The drills will involve some 12,000 military, around 1,500 pieces of military and special equipment and some 90 aircraft," the general said, noting that contingents from the Russian Armed Forces, the Interior Ministry, the Emergencies Ministry and the National Guard (Rosgvardiya) will take part.

The maneuvers will be held on October 3-20, 2017 in Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan, and in November in Tajikistan.

Headquartered in Moscow, the CSTO, formed in 2002, is a regional security group comprising six post-Soviet countries - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia.