Military parade will demonstrate Kazakhstan's combat power to CSTO and NATO: expert

First Kazakhstan Military Parade that will be held on May 7 is going to be a demonstration of Kazakhstan's combat power to international organizations, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Askar Shimpeyev, the chairman of the public union called Kazbat Union of Combat and Peace-Making Operations Veterans. The expert says that withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2014 is the most critical issue. Shimpeyev believes that is relation to the withdrawal and its consequences it is important for Kazakhstan to show preparedness of its peace-keeping forces. He adds that international organizations -- CSTO and NATO in particular -- will be the main target “audience” of this parade. Not all experts support the idea of holding the Military Parade. For example, President of the Union of Veterans of Local Wars and Military Conflicts called Military Brotherhood Sergey Pashevich believes that it is more practical to spend the money allocated for the parade to fund various needs of the army. “I would have spent the money allocated for the parade to build housing for officers and buying new armament. I don’t see any point in the Military Parade, it is just a show. It would serve a better purpose if it was a military training,” Pashevich says. Former deputy Defense Minister of Kazakhstan Amirbek Togussov also doubts the necessity of holding the Parade. He believes that the army is not prepared well enough for such a large-scale event. “I think that such parades require at least a year of preparations and 6 months of practical actions. All the troops had to do a lot of paperwork and hold trainings. All that has to culminate in the Parade after the whole preparatory work is done. It is good for them if this work has been performed. But I really doubt that,” Togussov says. He believes that the money spent on the parade should have been spent on social payments. In such case, according to Togussov, the issues of lowering maternity leave payments and raising retirement age for women would not have been so critical. “But Spending the money on the Military Parade, that is a “military theater” to some extent... do we really need this?” he said. The May 7 Military Parade will include air-to-air combat actions, aerial stunts and airmobile assault actions in Kazakhstan this year. 86 planes and helicopters is the record number for Kazakhstan to be simultaneously used in a joint operation. By Dmitriy Khegai