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Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
Генеральный секретарь ОДКБ
	Logo of the CSTO
	Flag of the CSTO
	Incumbent; Taalatbek Masadykov; since 1 January 2026
	CSTO
Member of	CSTO Collective Security Council
Seat	CSTO Secretariat, Moscow, Russia
Appointer	CSTO Collective Security Council
Term length	Three years, renewable
Formation	October 1996; 29 years ago
First holder	Vladimir Zemsky

The secretary general of CSTO is the chief civil servant of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance. The officeholder is one of the foremost political official in the organization. The secretary general is elected for a three-year term.^[1] The current secretary general is Kyrgyz politician Taalatbek Masadykov, who took office on 1 January 2026.

History

The CSTO countries selected the first secretary general in October 1996^[2]. Since that time, eight different military/security officials have served officially as secretary general. Five countries have been represented, with five secretaries general hailing from Russia and one each from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The position has also been occupied temporarily on two occasions by an acting secretary general between appointments.

Secretariat

The Secretariat has divisions in charge of legal, financial, economic and other issues. The number of quota posts in the Secretariat is assigned to the CSTO member states in proportion to their contributions to the budget. The appointment of officials to the quota positions of the Secretariat is carried out by the Secretary General on a rotational basis every three years on the proposal of the CSTO member states.^[3]

Leadership

CSTO Secretary General: Taalatbek Masadykov (Kyrgyzstan)
Deputy Secretary General
- Valery Semerikov (Russian Federation)
- Samat Ordabaev (Kazakhstan)
- Mirlan Turgunbekov (Kyrgyzstan)

Structure

The CSTO Secretariat includes the following main structural units:

Department of Political Cooperation
Department for the Management of Military Security Problems
Department for Countering Challenges and Threats
Case Management Department
Organizational and Planning Department

List of secretaries-general

The following have served as heads of the CSTO:

No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Term of office			Country	Ref.
No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Country	Ref.
1		Vladimir Zemsky (1939–2004)	October 1996	March 2000	3 years, 5 months	Russia	^[4]^[5]
2		Valeriy Nikolayenko (born ?)	May 2000	28 April 2003	2 years, 11 months	Russia	^[5]^[6]
2		Nikolay Bordyuzha (born 1949)	28 April 2003	31 December 2016	13 years, 247 days	Russia	^[5]
–		Valery Semerikov (born 1954) acting	1 January 2017	2 May 2017	121 days	Russia	^[5]
3		Yuri Khatchaturov (born 1952)	2 May 2017	1 November 2018	1 year, 183 days	Armenia
–		Valery Semerikov (born 1954) acting	1 November 2018	31 December 2019	1 year, 60 days	Russia
3		Stanislav Zas (born 1964)	1 January 2020	31 December 2022	2 years, 364 days	Belarus
4		Imangali Tasmagambetov (born 1956)	1 January 2023	31 December 2025	2 years, 364 days	Kazakhstan
5		Taalatbek Masadykov (born 1961)	1 January 2026	Incumbent	216 days	Kyrgyzstan	^[7]