West wants Armenia to leave CSTO —Alexander Bortnikov

 
The West is pushing Armenia to withdraw from the CSTO, which will make Yerevan even more dependent on NATO for its future relations with Baku, Russian FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov said at the 55th meeting of the Council of Heads of National Security Enforcement Agencies and Special Services of the CIS in Astana, Kazakhstan.

According to him, Western countries are not interested in establishing stability in Transcaucasia and are trying to achieve the deployment of their own “peacekeeping” mission in the region under the auspices of NATO. Making Yerevan delay negotiations with Baku, “the West is trying to lead the process of Azerbaijani-Armenian normalization and achieve the deployment of its own ‘peacekeeping’ mission in the region—de jure under the auspices of the UN and de facto under the auspices of NATO.” 

“The possible nature of such peacekeeping is already indicated by the fact that the so-called ‘independent EU civilian observation mission’ deployed on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan is conducting intelligence activities in the interests of a particular NATO country against Russia and our partners,” Bortnikov said.

At the same time, he said, in exchange for favorable arms supplies and security guarantees, the West is pushing the Armenian government to withdraw from the CSTO, which will make Yerevan even more dependent on NATO for its future relations with Baku. “Given all the previous experience of NATO mediation in various regions of the world, the bloc’s presence in Transcaucasia will obviously not be conducive to the development of relations with Baku,” Bortnikov added.