Directly speaking, the absence of such bodies in CSTO was rather strange as any military-political alliance must possess response mechanisms. Hardly will QRCF be directed against NATO, more likely this unit will indeed protect, if we may put it so, the states within the organization. And, as it can be seen, it is going to be mutually beneficial. Russia gains an additional point against the West and may become a guarantor of security in the eyes of all the post-Soviet states, as it was demonstrated in August 2008. Some of the CIS states will have to give up the temptation of settling their territorial and other pretensions in a military way. It firstly refers to Azerbaijan and Georgia. But even if everything is more or less clear with Georgia, there are still hundreds of unanswered questions with Baku. President Aliyev's administration has already managed to declare that QRCF poses no threat to Azerbaijan. Well, it is in fact so, but only until Baku suddenly decides to declare war on Nagorno Karabakh. Then, if not the Central Asian countries, at least Russia and Belarus will definitely send their military divisions to Armenia for assistance, because declaration of war to NKR indicates a direct war against Armenia.

Once formed, QRCF may change the geopolitical distribution of forces not only in Central Asia but in the Caucasus as well. It is not accidental that Kyrgyzstan made a decision on closing the USAF base "Manas" especially now. Hardly would she go as far as that without having the support of Russia.

If we look at the possible closing of the air base from the outlook of Russia, the benefit for Moscow is apparent: she gains an excellent club against NATO and the USA in Afghan matters. No one can guarantee that after the closure of the air base "Manas", Russia will not propose another aerodrome to the NATO forces for transferring loads and military contingent to Afghanistan. Actually, in that way Moscow can return part of the money given to Kyrgyzstan "as a gift". But besides money Russia also obtains a political lever not only against Kyrgyzstan, but against the entire Central Asia. If we also take into account the formation of quick response collective forces of CSTO, it becomes clear that presently the USA suffers a strategic defeat. Even the moment was selected by Moscow rather carefully: the new Administration has completely gone into crisis elimination and has no time for Kyrgyzstan. It is natural that the opposition should speak of the "treachery of national interest", but, after all, opposing is the job of opposition. Certainly, the USA will attempt to exert pressure on Kyrgyzstan, but it is not an easy job to fight against 2 billion people, especially when there is neither Dick Cheney nor Condoleezza Rice, who except for combating terrorism (in their understanding) could do nothing else.

For the CSTO member states, no matter how they treat RF, it is yet an obvious excess to hold a US base in their territory… And however sad it may sound to Bakiyev the fate of "Manas" will be solved by Medvedev and Obama. The same is also true about the whole post-Soviet territory. The CSTO members have not recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but it is too difficult to contradict Moscow in every matter. Who knows, President Bakiyev might still have to do even worse things than the closure of the USAF base in Kyrgyzstan? Besides, the USA is rather far, while Russia is within spitting distance. Kyrgyzstan has neither oil nor gas, thus it may cause no serious quarrels. Everything is done on the level of declarative statements, which, by the way, may cease at any moment.

As to the QRCF, for all the CSTO members, including Armenia, they mean consolidation of security and reduction in the rate of threats issued by unfriendly countries. The only thing this new unit should avoid is taking part in the peacemaking operations of NATO. CSTO and NATO have quite different goals and, accordingly, fairly different methods of achieving them.