Struggle for resources and corridors: Shoigu explains why the West is brazenly interfering in the affairs of the South Caucasus

Sergey Shoigu, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said that Armenia and Georgia are facing open Western interference in their political life.

“Western countries are openly and brazenly trying to interfere in the political situation. In the South Caucasus, we see this not only in the case of Armenia, but of Georgia as well,” he said at a meeting of the presidium of the Security Council’s scientific-expert council.

Shoigu stressed that there are no insoluble contradictions between states, and that emerging disagreements should be viewed through the lens of who benefits from pitting neighboring peoples against one another. According to him, behind this are most often Western forces seeking to maintain control over the region’s economy, transport corridors, and resources.

In support of this, he cited the words of Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, who said that escalation with Russia might serve the interests of Germany or Lithuania, but not Georgia.