Communist Bloc Military Updates: CSTO military production commission meets in Yerevan; Iceland PM annoyed by Russian bomber probes, demands NATO cover

The military production commission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the neo-Soviet military pact that undergirds the Commonwealth of Independent States, is meeting in Yerevan today to coordinate the production of military hardware among member states. State-run Voice of Russia reports: "The military production commission of the Collective Security Pact of seven former Soviet republics is meeting in the Armenian capital Yerevan. It will consider promoted cooperation and integration and polish draft documents that will be signed by the member-nations. The commission is expected to map out ways to meet strategic objectives in military production. The Collective Security Pact brings together Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan." In Kiev, the same source reports, border troop commanders are meeting to coordinate border control operations among CIS member states, ostensibly to combat "terrorism, smuggling, and illegal immigration." In reality, such operations probably disguise pre-war preparations.

In a related story, in early April Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde attended the NATO summit in "post"-communist Romania, where he complained about repeated violations and near-violations of Icelandic airspace by Russian bombers. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attended that meeting. The most recent entrance of Russian military aircraft into the Icelandic air observation zone, accompanied by NATO fighter jets, occurred two days ago. The Icelandic media reports on Reykjavík's response:

Russian Bombers Fly Near Iceland Again
25/04/2008 11:16

Two far-reaching Russian bomber jets entered the Icelandic air observation zone on Wednesday where they remained for three hours. They did, however, not enter Icelandic air space. This has happened before, e.g. in September last year.

According to Fréttabladid, the bombers were followed on radar but nothing else was undertaken.

During a meeting between the leaders of NATO countries and Russia in Romania earlier this month, Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde expressed his dissatisfaction with Russian military jets regularly entering the Icelandic air observation zone without permission.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended that meeting.

When Haarde met with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday, he told Brown that Russian bombers had flown near Iceland again.

Haarde's expressions of "dissatisfaction" in Bucharest appear to have been addressed, as we blogged several days ago, by the upcoming deployment in Iceland at the beginning of May of four French Mirage 2000 multi-purpose combat aircraft. Iceland is a NATO member, but has no armed forces. Yesterday PM Haarde was in London where he met British PM Gordon Brown. There the two leaders signed an agreement that requires the United Kingdom to be responsible for Iceland's defense during peacetime and to participate in NATO’s air space observation around the island country. The source quoted previously reports: "Iceland has already concluded a similar defense agreement with Norway and Denmark and defense talks with Canada are well underway. NATO’s organized air space observation around Iceland begins next month when the crew of four French fighter jets will come to Iceland for supervision and military exercises. Other nations will follow and Haarde said Brown had been very positive about participating in the project." Thus, the British, French, Norwegian, Danish, and Canadian air forces will assume rotating roles in defending Iceland under the aegis of NATO.

Communist Conquest by Peaceful East-West Convergence: Russia Demands Strategic Partnership to Neutralize European Union/North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Notwithstanding Russia's open war footing and publicly stated threat of nuclear blackmail, expressed in Putin's statement last year in which he threatened to target his missiles at Europe, the Kremlin also continues to pursue the more subtle course of East-West convergence. Within this framework global domination can be achieved in the form of a strategic partnership between the European Union, which is a Moscow-guided project to begin with, and Russia. In separate meetings in Moscow this week between Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and Putin and between Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb and Lavrov, the subject of an EU-Russia merger was broached by the Russian hosts. Yesterday, the Kremlin media reported that "Mr. Juncker said good relations between Russia and Europe were unthinkable without strategic partnership." Today, the Voice of Russia continued the theme of East-West convergence: "Russia seeks a strategic partnership with the European Union. This implies an appropriate agreement within a short period and a package of road maps for getting closer together in security, legal affairs and culture. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the matter with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb at a meeting with him in Moscow on Friday."

Not-So-Former Soviet republic Lithuania is holding up partnership talks between Moscow and Brussels by presenting its own terms for discussion, namely, that the Kremlin guarantee Russia's supply of oil to Lithuania as well as curtail its meddling in the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria. In view of the fact that Lithuanian PM Gediminas Kirkilas is "ex"-CPSU, Vilnius' determination to ensure Moscow's compliance is disengenuous. EU foreign ministers are slated to meet in Luxembourg next Tuesday.

Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC this week, Poland's "ex"-communist president Alexander Kwasniewski is going further than his neo-Soviet masters by recommending that NATO welcome Russia into its ranks. State-owned Kommersant Daily reports: "According to Kwasniewski, the alliance should evolve further in the direction of collective security organizations and accept states beyond the Atlantic region. He named Japan, Australia and South Korea along with Russia as potential members of the reformed organization." A total political-military merger between neo-Soviet Russia and EU/NATO, of course, would completely neutralize the Western Alliance, which is one of the chief but unstated objectives of the Soviet strategists. Last month we quoted Russian analyst Konstantin Syvkov as saying: "The more countries join the alliance, the less effective it will become. This endless expansion, if continued, will split NATO causing it to fall into interest groups. Following a split over the war in Iraq, NATO is no longer seen as a strongly centralized monolith structure as it used to be in the days of the Cold War."