The West Urges Yerevan to Delay Negotiations with Baku: Bortnikov Highlights the Reasons

The Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia, Alexander Bortnikov, who is also the head of the Council of Security Agencies and Special Services of CIS member states, has stated that Western countries are seeking to push Armenia out of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in exchange for preferential arms supplies. He made this statement during a meeting of the Council of Security Agencies and Special Services of CIS countries.

“In exchange for preferential arms supplies and security guarantees, the West aims to pull the Armenian government out of the CSTO, which will place Yerevan in a greater dependency on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) regarding its future relations with Baku,” he said.

In his view, “considering NATO’s previous mediation experiences in various regions of the world, the consolidation of the alliance in the South Caucasus will evidently not contribute to the region's stability.”

“By urging Yerevan to delay negotiations with Baku, the West is attempting to take the lead in the Azerbaijani-Armenian resolution process and to secure the deployment of its own peacekeeping contingent in the region—de jure under the auspices of the UN, and de facto under NATO,” Bortnikov noted.

He also reported that the EU's independent civilian monitoring mission stationed at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border is “engaged in intelligence activity in favor of a specific NATO member against Russia and our partners.”

The FSB director added that Western countries are instigating other conflicts in the post-Soviet space as well. He pointed out that the concentration of Ukrainian forces near the Belarusian border, numerous incidents involving Ukrainian drones in the Republic’s airspace, the recruitment of Belarusian citizens into the Ukrainian armed forces, and the intensification of sabotage work by Ukrainian special services “pursue the same goal—escalating the conflict, in which the Baltic States and Poland will also be drawn in.”

“We also see a serious threat in the West's increasing pressure on Moldova, aimed at forcing Chișinău into an open confrontation with Russia. The EU and NATO are linking further financial assistance and prospects for European integration for the country to the inclusion of its territory in the logistics of military supplies to Ukraine and the final resolution of the Transnistrian issue,” Bortnikov stated.

It is worth noting that in September, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that membership in the CSTO poses threats to Armenia's security, existence, and sovereignty.