Security bloc slams NATO self-propaganda over Ukraine

The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Eurasian security bloc, Wednesday criticised NATO's self-propaganda through the Ukraine crisis.

"Ukraine is not a NATO member, so the attempt to engage the bloc into mounting pressure on Russia is nothing but a desire of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to promote himself through Ukrainian domestic political problems," Xinhua quoted CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha's as saying in a statement.

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

Bordyuzha said any attempt to engage any international alliance and organisation in Ukraine's domestic affairs was "counterproductive and provocative".

The CSTO head was responding to Rasmussen's statements that Russia's actions in Ukraine required international response.

After meeting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia in Brussels Monday, Rasmussen also said NATO would more actively involve Ukraine in its multinational projects with regard to the development of military potential.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk had Friday said Kiev was in talks with the US and NATO over possible military technical assistance, a day after Moscow deployed six SU-27 fighters in Belarus to counter possible NATO activities.