BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 4. NATO seeks to introduce its contingent in Transcaucasia under the guise of peacekeepers, the Director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSS) Alexander Bortnikov said at a meeting of the Council of Heads of Security Bodies and Special Services of the CIS, which is taking place in Astana, Trend reports.
“The Americans and Europeans are clearly not interested in establishing stability in Transcaucasia. Inclining Yerevan to delay negotiations with Baku, the West is trying to lead the process of Azerbaijani-Armenian settlement and to achieve the deployment of its own “peacekeeping” contingent in the region - de jure under the aegis of the UN, and de facto - NATO,” he said.
Bortnikov emphasized that the possible nature of such “peacekeeping” is indicated by the fact that the so-called independent civilian observation mission of the EU 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.
As the head of the FSS pointed out, in exchange for favorable arms supplies and security guarantees, the West seeks the Armenian government's withdrawal from the CSTO, which will make Yerevan even more dependent on the North Atlantic Alliance for its future relations with Baku.
“Taking into account all the previous experience of NATO mediation in various regions of the world, the block's entrenchment in Transcaucasia will obviously not contribute to stability in the region. Assessing the results of our interaction with the Americans and their allies on various issues, we have come to an unambiguous conclusion - the things that Western partners demand from others, they do not fulfill and are never going to fulfill,” Bortnikov added.