News - Bortnikov: The West is trying to get Armenia to leave CSTO in exchange for preferential arms supplies

The West seeks to introduce its "peacekeeping" contingent from NATO countries to Transcaucasia, allegedly to help normalize relations between Yerevan and Baku. Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia, stated this at a meeting of the Council of Heads of CIS Security and Law Enforcement Agencies, TASS reports. "Americans and Europeans are clearly not interested in establishing stability in Transcaucasia [i.e. the South Caucasus]. By persuading Yerevan to postpone negotiations with Baku, the West is trying to lead the Azerbaijani-Armenian settlement process and achieve the deployment of its ‘peacekeeping’ contingent in the region under the de jure UN and de facto NATO auspices," said Bortnikov. "The possible nature of such ‘peacekeeping’ is already indicated by the fact that the so-called ‘independent civilian monitoring mission of the EU,’ stationed on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan, carries out intelligence activities in the interests of a specific NATO country against Russia and our partners," the FSB head emphasized. In addition, he noted that "the West is trying to get the Armenian government to leave the CSTO in exchange for preferential arms supplies and security guarantees, which will make Yerevan even more dependent on the North Atlantic Alliance in matters of its future relations with Baku." "And taking into account all the previous track record of NATO's mediation in various regions of the world, the consolidation of the alliance in the Transcaucasia will obviously not contribute to stability in the region," stressed the FSB head. He added that the United States and its allies demand from others what they themselves do not implement or plan.