War Games in Central Asia, Minus Belarus and Uzbekistan

Everybody has probably already heard about the first exercises of the CSTO rapid reaction force in Kazakhstan today, where President Dmitry Medvedev wanted to make sure he was the most well dressed autocrat to show up to the party.  I do often wonder if the Kremlin hired the same people George W. Bush used to use to stage manage these kinds of Hollywood-esque media performances.  From Reuters:

Dressed in combat fatigues, the leaders of Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan looked on as the force carried out a mock attack to destroy “insurgents” who had taken control of a chemical plant.

Smoke rose from a dew-drenched firing range in the Kazakh steppe, revealing paratroopers landing from helicopters and storming a building to rescue hostages.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived at the Soviet-era firing range in a helicopter and wore desert-style camouflage uniforms created by fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin.