During a February 21 international video conference secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha made some sensational statements concerning possible intervention in the internal affairs of member countries, as well as in the Karabakh conflict. The official said that Russia intends to play a more active role in Armenia and Karabakh through the CSTO.

“We have discussed it and concluded that mechanisms are needed for those cases where law-enforcement agencies and the government of a given country are unable to control the situation, where there is widespread chaos, riots, looting in the country and when it is impossible to control the situation at the national level. If there is a consensus in the CSTO, it will become possible to use the organization’s potential, not the troops, not the special units, but, I emphasize, the potential,” said Bordyuzha, speaking during the teleconference, Moscow-Astana-Yerevan-Minsk-Kiev-Chisinau). He added that such decisions should only be taken to protect citizens and to establish law and order, and the organization has no goal to serve as a tool against the opposition.

Bordyuzha stressed that this should not be regarded as a gendarme function or any mechanism for intervention in domestic conflicts.

Russia, which accuses the West of intervening in local conflicts, itself is creating a legitimate mechanism of interference in internal affairs of other countries, writes the Armenian newspaper Lragir. For Armenia the CSTO can be an organization that ensures only its external security and it should not have any other rights. This decision will only strengthen the dependence of the Armenian authorities on Russia, the newspaper holds.

The CSTO does not interfere in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but it monitors the situation, said Bordyuzha. At the same time, he said that Armenia will get assistance, if necessary.

“Armenia is a full member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. It is obliged to provide its potential for collective security and is entitled to receive the same support from its allies,” said Bordyuzha.

The official said that in mid-March he will visit Yerevan to discuss with Armenian experts and political analysts the strategic documents of the CSTO, in particular, on the concept of CSTO development, a collective security strategy and a strategic planning system.

“The rapid reaction force will actually conduct exercises in the territory of Armenia in autumn 2012. Prior to that, such exercises were held in Russia, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan,” said Bordyuzha.

Such statements have caused a backlash in neighboring Azerbaijan.

The CSTO secretary general makes statements that go beyond his powers and he must apologize to Azerbaijan for his words, said member of the committee on security and defense of the parliament of Azerbaijan Aydin Mirzazade, as quoted by the Azerbaijani news agency Trend. “The CSTO is supposed to ensure the security of member countries, and Nagorno-Karabakh, as we all know, is not the territory of Armenia,” said the Azeri lawmaker.

Armenian experts predict that, if Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is elected president in the March vote, Russia’s presence in post-Soviet countries will increase, as will increase Russian influence in the Karabakh conflict. Some enforcement action, up to the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone, may also be taken.