MOSCOW. – The Russian Defense Ministry plans to nominate Russian Airborne Troops Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Shamanov to the position of Collective Security Treaty Organization  (CSTO) Joint Chief of Staff, Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov informed. 

But if the CSTO leadership does not support this nomination, the Ministry will “look for an alternative.”

The matter concerning the appointment of the new Joint Chief of Staff and making a change in the format of the Organization’s activities will be discussed on December 19 in Moscow. 

Aside from changing the Joint Chief of Staff, raising the latter’s capacity is likewise being proposed, so that he would also be able to assume solely the headship of a Home Office of CSTO country, RIA Novosti News Agency of Russia reports.               

To note, the Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed on  May 15, 1992. And on  October 7, 2002, the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan signed a charter in Tashkent founding the CSTO.

And the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force recently held joint multinational military exercises, entitled “Cooperation 2012,” in Armenia.