Russia-led security bloc suspends cooperation with NATO

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has decided to suspend its contacts with NATO over the confrontation between the two blocs over Ukraine, the CSTO's secretary general said Thursday.

"We are stopping common efforts to jointly cooperate with NATO, taking into account the position NATO has taken during the Ukrainian crisis," Nikolai Bordyuzha told reporters.

The official explained that the decision has been made as a result of NATO's "blackmailing" of Moscow and its allies, Xinhua reported.

Russia currently chairs the CSTO which comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

NATO has been blackmailing all CSTO member countries, because the Western alliance is unhappy with Russian actions in recent months, he said.

On Wednesday, during a meeting of CSTO officials in the Chechen capital of Grozny, Bordyuzha said Russia and NATO had arrived at a state of "direct confrontation".

Among those actions, the CSTO chief mentioned anti-Moscow sanctions, presence of NATO warships in the Black Sea and attempts by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists to sneak into Russia for subversive activity.

Bordyuzha called these actions a "psychological attack" which provoked further rise of tension.

In March, Bordyuzha also criticised NATO's "self-propaganda" through the Ukraine crisis, saying that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen promoted himself through Ukraine's domestic political problems.

Fresh unrest erupted in Ukraine's troubled east in early April, when pro-Moscow activists seized government buildings in several cities, demanding a referendum on autonomy and closer ties with Russia. Ukraine has accused Russia of supporting the unrest, a move denied by Moscow.