Russian president proposes re-arming CSTO armed forces with Russian  weapons 

ArmInfo.  Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed launching a large-scale program to rearm the forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) with  combat-tested Russian weapons. He announced this on November 27 at an  expanded CSTO meeting in Bishkek, according to Russian media.

"We propose launching a large-scale program to equip the collective  forces with modern Russian weapons and equipment that have proven  their effectiveness in actual military operations," the Russian  leader stated.  According to Putin, Russia plans to continue  cooperating with its allies on all matters related to strengthening  the CSTO's military potential. He emphasized that currently, the  priority areas for development are increasing the combat readiness of  national contingents and improving command and control of the  collective forces. On November 27, a joint meeting of the Council of  Foreign Ministers (CFM), Council of Defense Ministers (CDM), and  Committee of Security Council Secretaries (CSCS) of the CSTO, as well  as a session of the CSTO Collective Security Council (CSC), was held  in Bishkek under the chairmanship of the Kyrgyz side. Armenia did not  participate in the events. The next meeting will be held in November  2026 in Moscow.

As a reminder, Armenia has been boycotting CSTO events since late  2022. In February 2024, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  stated that Armenia had effectively frozen its participation in the  CSTO, as the organization had failed to fulfill its obligations to  Armenia, which could not go without consequences.  And on September  18, 2024, at the Second World Armenian Summit, Pashinyan declared  that the CSTO poses threats to Armenia's security, its continued  existence, sovereignty, and statehood.