MINSK. May 25 (Interfax) - The West has been trying to intervene in the Nagorno-Karabakh situation, to ramp up its presence in the Caucasus and to discredit Russia's peacekeeping policy, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"As for the situation in the Caucasus, it is largely determined by the stage of settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Currently, security in Nagorno-Karabakh is being provided by the Russian peacekeeping contingent. Yet the West is trying to intervene in any way possible, to ramp up its presence and to discredit the Russian peacekeeping policy," Shoigu said at a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on Thursday.
The West's primary objective is "to squeeze Russia out of the South Caucasus, rather than to ensure the region's long-term security and prosperity," Shoigu said.
"An example is the so-called civilian mission of the European Union in Armenia, which involves servicemen and security service officers. I do not think I have to explain what they are actually doing," he said.
"In this context, we believe it's necessary to keep working on the deployment of a CSTO mission to the region," Shoigu said.