CSTO has turned into Russian policy tool - Yelchenko

"Unfortunately, we must admit that in today's world the roles of regional organizations in maintaining peace and security are rather different. Some of them are committed to their Charters and work to prevent, manage and resolve crises. [...] Others, on the contrary, tend to abstain from such actions and politicize their activities because of the distractive actions of their members. In our opinion, CSTO is one of these organizations," he said at a meeting of the UN General Assembly on a draft resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the CSTO on Thursday, July 25.

The diplomat recalled that the CSTO had demonstrated its complete failure not only to take appropriate measures to respond to the Russian aggression in Ukraine but even to make a relevant assessment of actions of its founding member.

"Nowadays the CSTO has become one of the Russian Federation's visible forays down the path of regional hegemony and as a vehicle for gaining influence among its neighbors. The CSTO is merely one of the Russian policy tools employed in the post-Soviet space," Yelchenko said.

He also said that due to such position of the CSTO and its biased approach to the issues related to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Ukraine cannot support provisions of the draft resolution related to the peacekeeping capabilities of the CSTO as well as its role in "providing an adequate response to a wide range of threats and challenges" and, thus, disassociates itself from consensus on these paras.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization was established in 1992. It includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

On December 2, 2004, this organization received observer status in the UN General Assembly.

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