Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Stanislav Vasilievich Zas (, ) is a Ukrainian-born Belarusian general and politician who is a former Secretary-General of the

Collective Security Treaty Organization The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. The Collective Security Treaty has ...

and was formerly the State Secretary of the

Security Council of Belarus The Security Council of Belarus ( Belarusian: Савет бяспекі Рэспублікі Беларусь, Russian: Совет безопасности Республики Беларусь) is an interdepartmental body with a mandate to ens ...

Early life

Zas was born in 1964 in

Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

. From 1982–1985, Zas was enrolled in the Baku Higher Combined Arms Command School in the capital of the Azerbaijan SSR.

Career

Red Army officer

After graduating from the Azerbaijani command school at the age of 21, he began his service in the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

, at one point acting as a commander of a motorized rifle platoon and reconnaissance platoon.

Transfer to Belarus

For two years beginning in 1993, he was selected to study at the

Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation The Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is a military academy in Moscow which provides graduate education for officers of the Russian Armed Forces. The full name reads: ''The Combined Academies Order of Lenin Order ...

, and completed his studies at age 32 in 1996 at the Military Academy of Belarus with honors and a gold medal.

General Staff Officer

Zas quickly rose in the military hierarchy, serving in various positions such as head of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

Deputy Secretary of State

Zas was promoted to Deputy State Secretary in August 2008. On 4 November 2015 he replaced Alexander Mezhuyev as State Secretary of the

, in accordance with a decree by President

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лукашенко, Aleksandr Grigoryevich Luk ...

dating back to July of that year.

Secretary-General of CSTO

In December 2018 Lieutenant-General Zas was made a candidate for the post of Secretary General of the

, succeeding

Colonel-General Colonel general is a three- or four-star military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, and was a r ...

Yuri Khachaturov from

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

. In May 2019, the CSTO's Foreign Ministers nominated Zas to become Secretary General, with his official appointment being on 1 January 2020. It was under his watch that the CSTO deployed active duty troops for the first time in its 20-year history in January 2022, to quell an incipient rebellion in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. This commitment of peacekeeping forces was mentioned by Zas in his Statement by the CSTO Secretary General to the

UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...

on 16 February. Zas reaffirmed the CSTO goal of "resolution of world problems by exclusively political and diplomatic means in accordance with the provisions and goals of the

UN Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: th ...

" as recently as 16 February in communication with the UN Security Council. On 17 February 2022 Zas held an interview, his first with the Western media, in the CSTO's Moscow headquarters. He offered that the CSTO might in theory deploy some of its forces to the

Donbass The Donbas or Donbass (, ; uk, Донба́с ; russian: Донба́сс ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrai ...

and that the CSTO was able to marshal a significant force if necessary. "Hypothetically you can imagine it (such a deployment) if there were goodwill from Ukraine – it is after all their territory – if there was a UN Security Council mandate, and if it was needed and such a decision was supported by all our governments." Zas opined that the only way to resolve the crisis in Ukraine was through negotiations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zas, Stanislav 1964 births Living people People from Chernihiv Oblast Belarusian generals