The CSTO is a military bloc that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union, consisting of the newly independent former Soviet countries that at that time made up the Commonwealth of Independent States. The bloc was designed to facilitate security cooperation between members and had a policy akin to NATO's, in which an attack against one is an attack against all. It began as the Collective Security Treaty in 1992 and by the time the treaty came into effect (for a 5-year period beginning in 1994) it included Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. By 1999, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan had become closer with the West and had withdrawn from the bloc. As Moscow began its resurgence in the mid-2000s, Russia began to think of the bloc as a vehicle to expand its influence in CSTO member states.