Russia has its own defense alliance, the CSTO, intended to mimic NATO and promote Russian power. But experts told Insider it's never really worked, and is actually making Putin look weak.

The CSTO is a military alliance of six post-Soviet states—Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan—that has been likened to a smaller version of NATO.

A military alliance formed in 2022, the CSTO also consists of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and, akin to Article 5 of NATO's North Atlantic Treaty, an act of aggression against ...

The CSTO has a clause similar to NATO's Article 5, where members are supposed to aid each other when one is attacked. But when Armenia asked for help during clashes with Azerbaijan in 2022, ...

Russia’s version of NATO is collapsing as Vladimir Putin fails his ally Armenia as Azerbaijan cracks down in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia's prime minister said Putin's NATO-style alliance, the CSTO, "creates threats" for his country. It's the latest salvo in a series of snubs from Armenia toward the bloc. Armenia recently ...

The CSTO, a Russian-lead counterpart of the NATO is now on the brink of collapse as many of its Central-Asian members have left the alliance. Type your search and press Enter. Home; ...

Despite Russia’s ironclad commitment to defend the other member states from aggression listed in Article 4 of the CSTO, which is akin to NATO’s Article 5, Russian support never came.

Armenia's prime minister said the CSTO, seen as Putin's NATO, "creates threats" for his country's future existence, after it pulled away from it.

Armenia's prime minister said it has frozen participation in all aspects of the CSTO, Putin's NATO rival, and doesn't plan to reengage.