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Western intelligence trying to drive wedge between CIS member states — FSB chief

Alexander Bortnikov noted that Western countries "are imposing beneficial formats of cooperation on players outside their regions in the spheres of defense and security"

MINSK, June 1. /TASS/. The West is actively using its intelligence services and emissaries in order to drive a wedge between member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday.

"The United States and Great Britain actively work to fragment the countries of the Commonwealth," Bortnikov said at a meeting of participants of the Council of Heads of National Security Enforcement Agencies and Special Services of the CIS, attended by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"With the use of intelligence and secret services, as well as of their representatives, they work with political and economic elites from the CIS, trying to drive a wedge between our countries by either threatening them with follow-up sanctions or promising some benefits," he continued.

Bortnikov noted that Western countries "are imposing beneficial formats of cooperation on players outside their regions in the spheres of defense and security."

"This is confirmed by the recently intensified visits to the Commonwealth member states by NATO’s senior military officials," the FSB chief said. "The Americans and the British are actively - sorry for such slang - digging around political leadership and are obviously seeking to influence the situation among us," Bortnikov said.

He also spoke about how "the US and British intelligence, with the support of the mass media and puppet NGOs [non-governmental organizations], unleashed large-scale operations for the violent overthrow of governments" in the CIS member states.

"We are keeping this under control, taking appropriate measures in order to neutralize the threat," Bortnikov added.

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