MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. The West engineered a state coup in Ukraine in February 2014 to drag that country into NATO, a Russian lawmaker said on Sunday.

"They are preparing Ukraine for accession to NATO. The West organized the state coup for that," Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, said in an interview with the Norkin List television programme.

"It is a different question what for people on Maidan [the words "Maidan" and "Euromaidan" are used as a collective name for anti-government protests in Ukraine that originally started when the then President Viktor Yanukovich refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union in November 2013 - TASS] did it. These people are of no interest to anyone now. The West takes no interest in them at all," he said.

"But the state coup in Ukraine was mounted for the sake of joining NATO," he once again said.