European External Action Service spokesperson Peter Stano has denied allegations made by the Russian FSB that the West is pushing Armenia to delay the peace talks with Azerbaijan and plans to deploy a NATO contingent in South Caucasus, Armenpress reports.
Stano said the statement made by Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), is ‘nonsense.’
"These comments are full of nonsense and the usual lies and manipulations typical for the Russian regime that tries to cover its repeated failures to deliver on its promises and commitments to Armenia,” Stano told Armenpress Brussels correspondent Lilit Gasparyan when asked to comment on the FSB chief’s statement.
Bortnikov had claimed that the West is planning to deploy a NATO contingent in South Caucasus under what he described as a pretext to help the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization process.
The FSB chief accused the U.S. and the EU of not actually being interested in peace in South Caucasus.
“By pushing Yerevan to delay the negotiations with Baku, the West is trying to take over the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization process and achieve the deployment of its own 'peacekeeping' contingent, de jure UN, de facto NATO,” Bortnikov had said.
The FSB chief also accused the EU monitoring mission in Armenia of spying for NATO countries against Russia and its partners. Bortnikov said the West wants to achieve Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO by promising Yerevan security guarantees and privileged weapons supplies.
