The Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Putin’s post-Soviet answer to NATO, learned that the host nation for the pact’s joint military exercise, Kyrgyzstan, announced on Sunday it was canceling the event, Politico reports.
Scheduled to start tomorrow, the “Indestructible Brotherhood-2022” exercises were supposed to feature troops from Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on Kyrgyzstan’s eastern highlands, focusing on securing ceasefires, which presumably includes the massacre of civilians as Russian is undertaking in Ukraine. Five observer nations including Serbia, Syria and Uzbekistan were planning to attend.
The cancelation is the latest sign of unrest in the alliance. Armenia is still pissed that its CSTO cohorts didn’t come to its defense when it had a series of border skirmishes with Azerbaijan. Kyrgyzstani officials gave no reason for the cancelation.