MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. The destructive activities pursued by the United States and other Western countries are the main source of security threats to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which faces a complicated military and political situation in its area of responsibility, Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Colonel General Andrey Serdyukov said.

"The main source of threats to military security continues to be the destructive activities of the United States and Western countries, as a result of which the main established structures for ensuring world security based on the principles of the UN Charter are being destroyed," Serdyukov said at a briefing. At the same time, he pointed out that the military and political situation in the CSTO's area of responsibility "can be characterized as complicated."

The CSTO defense official explained that the West's disregard for the norms of international law provokes numerous conflicts along the perimeter of the CSTO's zone of responsibility and "leads to the growth of internal political and interethnic contradictions between individual countries, as well as contributes to the formation of a belt of instability around them."

In addition, he identified a number of major sources of military security risks in the Eastern European region. "Continued political-diplomatic, financial-economic and informational pressure from Western countries; further expansion of NATO to the east, taking into account the ongoing militarization of Poland and the Baltic states; increasing the combat capabilities of the coalition and national armaments of NATO countries, including those neighboring the organization's member states; development of the military infrastructure of the NATO member states in Europe against the background of the growing military activity of the United States in the area of responsibility of the member states of the organization; and the clash of interests of the West and the East on the territory of Ukraine" are among the threats Serdyukov enumerated.