Shoigu: West wants to force Russia out of South Caucasus

Baku/25.05.23/Turan: The West is making every effort to interfere in the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, expand its presence and discredit the Russian peacekeeping policy. Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said this at a meeting of the Council of Defence Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Minsk on May 25.

According to him, the West is trying to "expand its presence and discredit the Russian peacekeepers" in Karabakh, who maintain security in the region.

Shoigu believes that the main thing for the West is to "force Russia out of the South Caucasus, rather than to ensure the security and prosperity of the region in the long term," the Russian Minister was quoted as saying by "RIA-Novosti."

In so doing, Shoigu referred to the so-called civilian mission of the European Union in Armenia, which includes servicemen and members of special services.

"In this connection, we consider it necessary to continue work on sending a CSTO mission to the region," he said.

To remind, a day earlier Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated for the first time that Armenia may withdraw from CSTO. According to him, Armenia's participation in this structure does not guarantee the country's security and Yerevan is considering other options. -02D-