The State Duma on Friday has ratified a Protocol on a mechanism of rendering military-technical assistance to member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the event of a threat of aggression or commitment of an act of aggression against any of them, Itar-Tass reported.
The Protocol envisages that such assistance shall be provided for maintaining or restoring combat capacity of the Armed Forces the country (parties) in the event of a threat of aggression or commitment of an act
of aggression, or when the side uses its right to individual or collective self-defense in compliance with Article 52 of the UN Charter, or when the party is subject to acts of terrorism or other threats to its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The military-technical assistance shall be provided either gratis or on any other advantageous basis. The state that received such aid has no right to re-export it or turn over to other foreign countries.
Vice-premier of the Russian government and head of the government apparatus Sergei Sobyanin said the Protocol will entail no additional expenditures from the federal budget because financing of expenditures for these purposes will be made from funds envisaged by the Defense Ministry.
The ratification of the Protocol is of particular importance for Russia's national security and of practical importance for CSTO, said Chairman of the Duma Committee for the affairs of CIS and relations with
compatriots Alexei Ostrovsky.
The heads of states-parties to CSTO - - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, signed the document in Dushanbe on October 6, 2007.
The Protocol remains in force as long as the Treaty on Collective Security Treaty Organization of May 15, 1992, remains in force.