“The main objective of such centres is to shape an ally image in the population of organization member states. Moreover, they are designed to combine information efforts to counter attacks aimed at discrediting individual member states as well as the CSTO itself,” Strugovets said.
It is expected that information and propaganda centres will exist in all CSTO states because each of them is interested in their existence, Strugovets said.
According to him, "the centres will be established along the lines of NATO information structures operating in many countries in the world". "They will be interagency centres bringing together representatives of defence and foreign ministries as well as other structures such as law-enforcement, migration and anti-narcotics agencies," Strugovets said.
He believes that the final decision to establish information and propaganda centres may be approved at the next CSTO summit, due to take place in the middle of 2010.
The CSTO is a Russia-led defence and security alliance which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.