Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Chief of the Russian General Staff, General of the Army Yuri Baluyevsky assumed the posts of chairman of the CSTO Council of Defense Ministers and head of the CSTO United Headquarters respectively.
The relevant decision was made at a session of the Council of CSTO Defense Ministers in Moscow.
Russia takes over the rotating posts for a year from Kazakhstan.
Colonel-General Ivan Babichev, the former first deputy chief of staff for military cooperation among Commonwealth of Independent States member countries, was appointed first deputy chief of the CSTO United Headquarters.
The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. These countries signed the Collective Security Treaty in May 1992.
