CSTO not to deploy Iskander-M missile systems in Kazakhstan - CSTO chief

MOSCOW, April 1 (Itar-Tass) - The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) does not intend to deploy the Iskander-M missile systems in Kazakhstan or other Central Asian states, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said in an interview with Itar-Tass. “Certainly not. We don’t intend to deploy any Iskanders,” he stressed. “For what? To hit the population?” Bordyuzha continued. “Generally speaking, Iskander is not the kind of weapon to counter the challenges we currently expect from Afghanistan.” The CSTO secretary general highlighted the four main threats that may currently emanate from Afghanistan. “First - it’s the instability zone as such. Second - it’s a territory in which there are very many armed groups of various extremist organisations. Third - militant training camps. Fourth - drug trafficking,” he specified. According to Bordyuzha, these challenges had existed when NATO contingents were conducting active operations, and they remain now. “This has not disappeared anywhere, even with the huge build-up of Western troops that had been staying there and with colossal funds that had been injected into Afghanistan. Unfortunately, all these problems have not been resolved - they will remain there,” the CSTO chief noted. A number of previous media reports had said that under an agreement with the Kazakh government, the Iskander-M missile systems might be deployed in Kazakhstan. They specified that Russia’s Federal Special Construction Agency (Spetsstroy) would by the end of the current year build missile system storage depots at a distance of 100 kilometres from the border with Kazakhstan. The Iskander tactical ballistic missile system is designed for hitting ground pinpoint and area-type targets in the depth of the enemy’s operational order of battle. The system’s maximum destruction range is 500 kilometres. Learn more on itar-tass.com