diff --git a/.vsts-ci.yml b/.vsts-ci.yml
index 1867ca5f2a0c..0a23e955d593 100644
--- a/.vsts-ci.yml
+++ b/.vsts-ci.yml
@@ -133,7 +133,12 @@ jobs:
           filePath: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/.ci/test.sh
           targetType: filePath
       - task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
-        condition: and(succeeded(), in(variables['TASK'], 'regular', 'sdist', 'bdist', 'swig'), not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/')))
+        condition: >
+          and(
+          succeeded(),
+          in(variables['TASK'], 'regular', 'sdist', 'bdist', 'swig'),
+          not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/'))
+          )
         inputs:
           pathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
           artifactName: PackageAssets
@@ -273,7 +278,12 @@ jobs:
             /bin/bash $BUILD_DIRECTORY/docker-script.sh
         displayName: 'Setup and run tests'
       - task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
-        condition: and(succeeded(), in(variables['TASK'], 'bdist'), not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/')))
+        condition: >
+          and(
+          succeeded(),
+          in(variables['TASK'], 'bdist'),
+          not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/'))
+          )
         inputs:
           pathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
           artifactName: PackageAssets
@@ -325,7 +335,12 @@ jobs:
           filePath: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/.ci/test.sh
           targetType: filePath
       - task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
-        condition: and(succeeded(), in(variables['TASK'], 'regular', 'bdist', 'swig'), not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/')))
+        condition: >
+          and(
+          succeeded(),
+          in(variables['TASK'], 'regular', 'bdist', 'swig'),
+          not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/'))
+          )
         inputs:
           pathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
           artifactName: PackageAssets
@@ -369,7 +384,12 @@ jobs:
           cmd /c "powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File %BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY%/.ci/test-windows.ps1"
         displayName: Test
       - task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
-        condition: and(succeeded(), in(variables['TASK'], 'regular', 'bdist', 'swig'), not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/')))
+        condition: >
+          and(
+          succeeded(),
+          in(variables['TASK'], 'regular', 'bdist', 'swig'),
+          not(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/pull/'))
+          )
         inputs:
           pathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
           artifactName: PackageAssets
@@ -388,9 +408,14 @@ jobs:
       - script: |
           LGB_VER=$(head -n 1 VERSION.txt | sed "s/rc/-/g")
           R_LIB_PATH=~/Rlib
+          R_LIBS="c('R6', 'data.table', 'jsonlite', 'knitr', 'markdown', 'Matrix', 'RhpcBLASctl')"
+          R_DEPS="c('Depends', 'Imports', 'LinkingTo')"
+          CRAN_MIRROR="https://cran.rstudio.com"
+          INSTALLATION_STR="install.packages(${R_LIBS}, lib = '${R_LIB_PATH}', "
+          INSTALLATION_STR+="dependencies = ${R_DEPS}, repos = '${CRAN_MIRROR}', Ncpus = parallel::detectCores())"
           export R_LIBS=${R_LIB_PATH}
           mkdir -p ${R_LIB_PATH}
-          RDscript -e "install.packages(c('R6', 'data.table', 'jsonlite', 'knitr', 'markdown', 'Matrix', 'RhpcBLASctl'),  lib = '${R_LIB_PATH}', dependencies = c('Depends', 'Imports', 'LinkingTo'), repos = 'https://cran.rstudio.com', Ncpus = parallel::detectCores())" || exit 1
+          RDscript -e "${INSTALLATION_STR}" || exit 1
           sh build-cran-package.sh --r-executable=RD || exit 1
           mv lightgbm_${LGB_VER}.tar.gz $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/lightgbm-${LGB_VER}-r-cran.tar.gz
         displayName: 'Build CRAN R-package'