CSTO: Russia's Powerful Alliance Explained - TLDR News 

"... Was originally about protecting against foreign, not domestic aggression, but there is definitely a market for it!" - TLDR script writers know how to add just the right quantity of salt in their reporting!

A bit to clarify, 1) CSTO officially didn't participate in fighting against protestors. They protect military infrastructure. 2) Kazakhstan's government as you mentioned described protestors as foreign-trained agents so they pretended it's some sort of foreign attack hence mutual defense clause can be activated.

Guess you could say that the CSTO were .... ... Putin the protesters in their place. 🥁

Probably one compelling reason why Russia intervened in Kazakhstan and not in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan is the possibility of protest spillover to Russia due to geographical proximity. Kazakhstan is also very much like Russia in its socio-economic structure, while Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are not.

I think, you should also cover commonwealth of independent nations

8:11 - I strongly disagree. The 4th article was actually worded out exactly like that to be used against domestic protesters. You can label anyone a "terrorist" and "an external force", and Tokaev uses these words exclusively when referring to the unrest to justify the use of force and involvement of CSTO.

3:51 TL:DR bangs his desk.

Basically, the real version of DC’s Legion of Doom…no real loyalty.

18 killed 700+ injured 1 with the head cut off? Not enough for the answer to these barbarian acts of cruelty.

Former Warsaw pact countries didn't take much persuasion from NATO to join after their traumatic history like 1956 Czechoslovakia or 1968 Hungary.

A good explainer. Well done!

I'd like to clarify, NATO didn't have to convince the former members of Warsaw pact to join. We all couldn't join fast enough when the Soviets moved their troops out of our countries! Nobody wanted to get invaded by Russians again, and NATO is seen as a protection against that.

Damn, I can feel the air quotes whenever "Peacekeeping " is mentioned

Of all the possible pictures of CSTO forces in Kazakhstan you picked a picture of Khazak troops shooting in Almaty at least twice when adressing CSTO personal. Most amusing indeed.

Putin is LARP'ing really hard in Hoi4 right now

Very well analysed

unfortunately, if the CSTO wants to survive it seems like "all threats foreign and domestic" is going to have to become policy officially. the apple does not fall far from the tree.

CSTO did a great fast and professional job in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿. Great video

Can we get more videos explaining the alliances and treaties between countries around the world?

-Mom I want NATO -No son, we have NATO at home NATO at home:

If I had to blindly guess, I would say that the reason they were willing to intervene in Kazakhstan but not Kyrgyzstan or Armenia is because it was less controversial to the member states. I can guess that Uzbekistan might have difficulty responding to a call from Kyrgyzstan to come in and quell Uzbek-Kyrgyz violence, depending on the specifics of the conflict and of Kyrgyzstan's request, and I'd guess many countries, especially those 3 majority Turkic countries, would be reticent to enter a war against Azerbaijan on Armenia's side, when they all know the war was mostly about Azerbaijan taking back the land Armenia took in the 1990's (that they probably officially recognize is Azerbaijan's) to protect a country that they don't recognize and which still de facto exists (though smaller) even after the 2020 war (with Russian troops already keeping a corridor open between it and Armenia for transportation and communication). Quelling a popular uprising might seem equally controversial, but a lot of those countries do that sort of thing anyway, and the uprising seems at least to have been rather violent before any foreign intervention and they can all easily label it a "color revolution", and in any case, probably none of the governments had a reason to side with the protestors and they probably didn't see as a war they could get stuck in and make worse like they may have feared about the Kyrgyzstan and Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh conflicts.

when you order your NATO from Wish

I wouldn't call any nation that was in the Warsaw pact an 'ally'. Satellites don't act freely, calling them allies is a bit problematic in my opinion.

While I am not a politician, I would like to argue the following which you would concur is obvious. Russia is a great power - much greater than the surrounding countries - and therefore, the only relevant perspective on the CSTO is Russia's perspective. In fact Russia is in the CSTO not for the same reasons as the other members. Russia does not need defense help from the other members, but obviously wants to maintain military influence and a buffer zone against NATO, while the other members need Russia for defense and/or political stability. To conclude, I believe the CSTO is as efficient as it could realistically be, that is, as Russia wants it to be, and there is no other way. The other members have no choice but to live with it, and Russia will keep the discretion as to granting protection and handling neighborhood conflicts.

I’d love to see a video on Mercosur from this channel 😁

I am still amazed how russia just left Armenia alone against Turkey and Azerbaijan

Looks like it is a way for one big country do not lose yet another ally due to a people getting smarter and starting to recognise local unfair authorities.

you should make a video about the eurasian economic union.

I prefer audio only.

CSTO troops that came to Kazakhstan were too small compared to the Kazakhstan's own military and police force. One theory: The reason why this time CSTO came to 'help' is to show that Russia supports the new president of Kazakhstan, after he took the chance of revolts and removed Kazakhstan's ex-president and his relatives and allies from power.

*The CSTO* is a successor organization to *The Warsaw Pact.* (At least the closest there is. The only other to consider is *The Union State.)*

poor man's NATO

CSTO deployment is more so that Russia doesn’t look further like a land-hungry giant, especially considering they have troops at Ukraine’s border.

Can we have NATO? PUTIN: We have nato at home. Nato at home: CSTO

The combination GDP of CSTO can’t reach top 10 in the world. This organization can be ignored

Remember the great game? (wait)

I wouldn't say NATO "persuaded" the former Warzaw pact countries to join.

CSTO = Can't Stand The Oxident

Surprisingly Tokayev got the public's respect back. He is one of the only actually intelligent politicians over here.

I just 24 hours ago heard from Aljazeera that there were 5000 imprisoned

CSTO is an acronym for Countries Subjected to Totalitarianism and Oligarchy. Good luck. Let us know how that goes for ya....

Self defense & balance

This rather looks like a Eurasian version of the "Condor Plan", which was a pact among some South American dictatorships to crack down on local dissidents (mostly socialist/communist) and for this matter was very effective, but it didn't have any use for the event of an external war, as proven during the Falklands War.

Hii i love this video news.

At 8:19, I noticed that Crimea and Kaliningrad are both not colored red lol

I really like your graphics motion & design styles, simple yet related to what you say. You may consider make some kinda online courses about it (motion graphics) or about journalism, anyway great explainer video 👍🏾

They betrayed Armenia and proved themselves to be weak

If you can't record in the studio, I don't think keeping the side bar on the left makes a lot of sense. Just animate the whole video, then. Anyway, good video nonetheless.

Csto has base just 60km from our border..

Something tells me the CSTO was never about defense but instead about offense and interal security... It's probably all the autocracs in it.

IS this possibly the new Warsaw Pact?

It's interesting that the Uzbeks aren't in the CSTO.

Why "protesters" cut heads?

Can you do a video about Omicron?

Russia invades Georgia and Ukraine. Russia: Well, we are not foreigners.

Can you do a video on the SCO? Or whatever it is called.

If I have a nickel for everytime someone naming a security alliance with a Treaty Organization which is not a lot but it's weird it happened twice

"Former Allies" is a pretty strong, and misleading statement. Try "Subjugated Puppet States" instead. Read up on the Prague Spring in 1968.

in my best ooinion, CSTO has to enlarge the membership by taking in iran, afghanistan, mongolia dan north korea. later on china and india could be inside the CSTO to. by doing so, CSTO could balance the 29 member NATO.

I'm surprised Uzbekistan isn't a member of CSTO.

Kinda ironic seeing Armenia stepping in

Start a podcast please

Well they made a mistake while writing the article instead of writing "protecting the regime against the protesters" they wrote protecting each other against foreign powers"

1:37 sounds like he’s describing himself

Armed ethnic protestors: I sleep Soliders attacking territory: I sleep Unarmed protestors wanting reform: LETSSS FUCKING GOOOOOO

I just dont believe that the main reason for the protest turning violent is due to high gas price like i think theres more to this.

This is better, just images is way better than human faces. I am not sarcastic

C'mon, not Hungry, but HUNGARY.

Do you really think there is no external involvement ? Seriously !

Serbia has Left the chat

I watched the vid. But I fail to understand why have Hungary marked on your tumbnail…

Russia switched from Visa to Chinese Union pay. I can see the rest of the CSTO following suit. Possibly Iran, North Korea, some states in Latin America like Cuba and Venezuela.

Knowing CSTO peacekeeper will go back in 13 January, seems like CSTO has done a good job.

But armenia wasn't really attacked not at least in the territory of armenia so csto can't really get involved.

ah yes... "peacekeepers"..

su former allies? nope former satellite states

Fun fact: Russia solved the coup attempt in 3 days.

Welp guess the csto means nothing

CSTO the addition of Pakistan, Syria, and Iran?

What do you prefer more? NATO or CSTO? Like the option that you like the most.

csto, breznev doctrine all over

Why don't you colour in the Caspian with the water colour you use in your maps? The way it is right now it probably just confuses the hell out of geography noobs.

Sounds like the"Voice of America". Struggling for objectivity and balance

Warsaw Pact >>> CSTO

CSTO members couldn't allow foreign military presence on their soil without collective CSTO approval, but the US did establish an airforce base in Kyrgyzstan 1 YEAR before that organization was formed and kept it until 2014. Did that circumvent CSTO approval?

"Peacekeeping" ✌ -_- ✌

U.S: " Bye Bye Afghanistan, it's nice knowing you." Afghanistan: "Well I'll join the CSTO, you traitor."

You mean he teamed with every s hole around Russia?

Doesn't seem like a serious alliance. While NATO is dominated by the US, since the US spends as much on its military as the next 10 countries combined, it's not like its other members are toothless. 3 other NATO members are in those top 10 and could individually go head to head with anyone - including Russia - except the US and China. The CSTO, on the other hand, depends entirely on Russia to function. So it's not surprising that "propping up a dictator" is something they'd do, while defending Armenia isn't, since Russia can profit by "staying neutral" and selling arms to both sides of that conflict.

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More than 300 people were killed for the moment

Not sure if Czechoslovakia was an ally... There was an occupation.

That acronym is two letters short of Costco

0:16

So we got a Defensive Alliance that is not Defending each other unless the Risk to their own Security is non Existant. No Offense Intended. But where I come from an Alliance would have been considered Broken if a Call to Arms was refused. The current Action of this ""Alliance" is not really meaningful and wont really change anything to be Honest. After all. The other Members can Intervene here without any Risk to their own Country. Effectively it costs them nothing to Intervene. This is just not going to Convince anyone that in case of an Actual Attack where their Country is at Actual Risk they would Intervene. And them having Refused Twice to Intervene at even lower Risk Conflicts effectively tells me that they wont. TLDR. This Alliance is not even a Toothless Papertiger. Its a Cardboard Cutout of a Toothless Papertiger....

What's with the static panel on the left? This is an obviously underhanded attempt to market the brand. Please just stick to reading the news off a script.

Too bad CSTO didn't expand as Nato did, They could have gotten China, Mongolia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, North Korea, and Maybe Iran

About Armenia and NK region... NK region is in Azerbaijan, it is self proclaimed independant state and not a part of Armenia. There was no reason for CSTO to react when Azerbaijan and NK vent to war, Armenia wasn't attacked. And why should CSTO react in ethnic unrest, it's not a foren agresion? In Kazakhstan there was elements of foreign involvement in those protests, you had armed protesters who was well organized, they attacked police stations, army instalations, airports, tv stations etc, that is not hapenning on regular protests (violent or otherwise) against government. Unfortunately there is new geopolitical and proxy war among big powers right now and we ordinary people are screwed.

It’s a joke, there I said it