MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s latest statements show that the United States is seeking to "tear off" countries of the Commonweal of Independent States (CIS) from Russia, CIS Secretary General Sergey Lebedev said in an interview with TASS.

"The recent visits and statements by the US Secretary of State during his visits, by the way, to Central Asian countries also reveal the desire to break loose the CIS, to destroy the CIS, to tear off CIS nations from Russia," he said.

According to Lebedev, the CIS nations are concerned with this fact. "Bearing this in mind, the CIS countries are trying to consolidate their efforts in order to counter this pressure," he noted.