Russia's CSTO Evalulation

[huskerguy7]

As some of you may know, Russia has taken a lead in forming the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The CSTO was formed by many Eastern Bloc countries and is "intended" to defeat terrorist and drug trafficking activities. However, they hold yearly exercises with lots of aircraft, armor and over 4,000 soldiers.

Two questions/thoughts:

-Is the CSTO meant to be more than they say? Like a deterrent/alternative to NATO?

-Do you think the CSTO is a very "capable" alliance?

I've seen the CSTO in the headlines but never get to see/hear thoughts on them.

 

[Feanor]

They're mostly a muppet show at this point. Albiet joint exercises help maintain some interoperability, and at least politically, there is some power behind it. I strongly doubt it would stand up well to a large external threat. However if another Islamist insurgency in southern Central Asia crops up again, it wouldn't be inconceivable to see some sort of joint CSTO response, with probably Russian and Kazakhstan taking the brunt of the "peacekeeping", and the other member states helping with logistics, border control, etc. on their end.

EDIT: If Nagorno-Karabakh goes hot, it might be the first test for the CSTO, and not an easy one, given Russian political and economic investment in Azerbaijan. However it might also play a unifying role.