MINSK, October 28. /TASS/. After World War II, Europe became a region with limited sovereignty, where most countries are not independent in their decisions, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Alexey Shevtsov said.

"One way or another, we will have to reorganize the security architecture in Eurasia, either by building a common system with our Western neighbors or by establishing a clear, predictable interaction mechanism. A common system is not yet feasible, but we must try. Since World War II, Europe has been a region with limited sovereignty, where most countries are not independent in their decisions," he said during the Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.

According to him, there was some hope in the 1960s and 1980s when European powers successfully resisted the US' attempts to dictate terms. "For example, Germany refused to deploy US nuclear weapons on its territory, USSR built gas and oil pipelines for the West, which functioned until recently. There was an intensive exchange of technologies, and the collective security system functioned relatively normally, including within the framework of the OSCE," Shevtsov explained.

The security official recalled that, after the collapse of the USSR, Europe had a unique opportunity to become one of the centers of the emerging multipolar world. "Unfortunately, Europe chose to follow the US' lead in an attempt to establish a unipolar world model, implement Western-style globalization, and orchestrate the 'end of history' – that is, to establish a system that would enable it to exert ideological, technological, and military dominance and exploit the resources of the rest of the world. It is within this paradigm that Europe and the collective West have been operating for the past few decades," he said.

Shevtsov noted that the threats facing the region are common. In his opinion, if European countries are unwilling to build an integrated security system with Russia based on equality and mutual respect for interests, then it is necessary to work with those states that are ready to cooperate on a Eurasian basis. "First and foremost, these are the CIS countries, which share the ideas of security equality and indivisibility, long-term stabilization of the military-political situation, and prevention of new territorial conflicts," the security official added.