Russia flexes muscles with Central Asian war games

* Russia, former Soviet republics hold war games

* First war games by post-Soviet rapid reaction force

* Uzbek, Belarus leaders did not attend



By Oleg Shchedrov

MATYBULAK, Kazakhstan, Oct 16 (Reuters) - A NATO-style rapid reaction force set up by Russia and four former Soviet republics staged war games on Friday, the new unit designed to cement Moscow's hold over allies in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Dressed in combat fatigues, the leaders of Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan looked on as the newly formed force carried out an exercise to destroy insurgents who had taken control of a chemical plant.

Smoke rose from a dew-drenched firing range in the Kazakh steppe, revealing paratroopers landing from helicopters and storming a building to rescue hostages.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived at the Soviet-era firing range in a helicopter and dressed in desert-style camouflage uniforms specially cut by celebrated fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin.

Russia is building up the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military alliance among former Soviet republics, as a counter-weight to NATO. The organisation commits members to defending each other in the event of attack.

"We created this organisation to repel aggression on any member of this organisation, to (fight) extremists, terrorists, drug trafficking and other kinds of extremism," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters after the manoeuvres.

Five of the CSTO members agreed to create the rapid reaction force in February, when Medvedev said the units should be comparable to NATO structures.

Officials said 7,000 troops and 90 aircraft took part in the "Interaction-2009" drills which covered an area of 1,600 square kilometres at the Matybulak firing range in southern Kazakhstan.

After inspecting troops and weapons, Medvedev and the other leaders moved to a two-storey brick command centre where they watched about 90 minutes of war games through binoculars.

The war games were overshadowed by the absence of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who, although members of the CSTO, declined to join the rapid reaction force.

Lukashenko's ties with Moscow have soured over trade rows and anger at Russia's refusal to lend Belarus more money. Karimov has been irked by Russian plans to build a military base in Kyrgyzstan near Uzbekistan's eastern border. (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Jon Boyle)