Russia: US continues to create "foothold of strength" in Baltics

  • 2018-04-06
  • LETA/TBT Staff

MOSCOW - By extending military assistance to the Baltic countries, the United States is continuing to create a foothold of strength and is prompting its allies to increase their military budgets, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.

"The U.S. is continuing its dual policy of bolstering the eastern flank and creating a foothold to project strength, and, on the other hand, is prompting allies to strictly abide by Washington's demands to raise their military budgets to up to 2 percent [of GDP]," Grushko told reporters in Moscow on Thursday when asked to comment on the White House's decision to provide 170 million dollars' worth of military assistance to the Baltic states.

He added that it seems that the interest of the U.S. is that the money would mainly be spent on buying weapons from the U.S.

According to Grushko, Russia's position is that all efforts that NATO makes do not improve the security situation but weaken it.