Yerevan /Mediamax/. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that "the presence of the Americans in the South Caucasus will only fuel up the conflict potential simmering in the region.”

TASS reports that Zakharova told this at a briefing in response to a question about the US-American Eagle Partner 2024 exercise that kicked off in Armenia.

“This only causes regrets and alarm, especially against the background of Yerevan’s actual freezing of its activities in the CSTO and public attacks on the organization,” the diplomat said.

Zakharova stressed that “the West’s main goal in the region is to create a foothold for its own geopolitical projects.”

“To do this, they need to remove all peaceful trends that have already gained momentum there, they need to once again embroil the countries of the region. They need to prevent the fastening of political intentions that were declared by both Baku and Yerevan and supported by regional countries,” she said.

All this has a certain orientation - against Russia, against Iran, and even against Turkey. Through involving it in maneuvers and training programs under their auspices, they impose NATO standards of armed forces on Armenia. This leads to the reformatting of Armenia’s entire security system and, as a result, the West acquires additional levers of influence on its domestic and foreign policy,” the Russian foreign ministry representative added.