This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batchelor. The Collective Security Treaty

Organization, shortened to CSTO, founded in 1992, 33 years springtime, and the treaty was meant to provide assurances to several of the former

Soviet states as they went independent at the end of Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Yeltsin's dream of holding

the empire together. However, 33 years later, I welcome Ivana Stradner of the Foundation for the Defense

of Democracies to comment on these decades and what's become of the CSTO, especially in light of the

aggression and violence by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which was not part of the original CSTO

33 years ago.

Vana, a very good evening to you.

Thank you for this.

You refer me in your article that's up at the FD site to the website for the CSTO, and

that's why I learned these historical facts.

Moscow's been bragging about it for 33 years, but it takes on especially a keen focus

because of the violence now.

What's become of the CSTO?

I don't remember hearing that troops or assistance from these states, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,

Belarus, and Uzbekistan. I don't remember them on the battlefield in Ukraine. Did I miss something?

Good evening to you. Good evening. And you're absolutely right. You couldn't see Russian tanks and jets

helping any of those countries because Russia's version,

what I like to call Moscow's imitation of NATO, the collective security treaty organization,

it was established three decades ago.

It is actually struggling to maintain legitimacy among its members.

Just recently during the NATO summit, Russia was not very happy about President Trump's support

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