Russian military demonstrates its quick-reaction readiness in Kazakhstan

From the order to standby for deployment in Kazakhstan to when troops began to pile into transport aircraft only a few hours had passed. It was an impressive display of Russian military quick-reaction readiness. Armoured personnel vehicles, mobile-phone-jamming drones and a whole lot of other equipment for the "peacekeeping" mission were also spotted being shipped into the huge aircraft. The Russian-led rapid reaction force set up in 2009 but never used operationally until now was in position and controlling the capital of Kazakhstan in a breathtakingly short time. The force was mostly Russian - airborne and special operations Spetsnaz troops - but there were also contributions from Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, all sent in the emergency under the Collective Security Treaty Organisation signed in May 1992 and involving nine regional nations. A sort of mini Warsaw Pact arrangement. The appeal for help by the Kazakhstan president after days of violent protests came at a bad time for President Putin who was gving all his focus to Ukraine and what he hoped to get from the planned talks in Geneva on Sunday between US and Russian officials. But in some ways he was probably quite happy to deploy troops to Kazakhstan to prove to the world that the Russian military was now a modernised force capable of mounting operations swiftly and lethally. You could almost hear him saying to himself: "Watch out, Ukraine."