MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Washington openly harms Moscow’s economic, energy, and military-technical cooperation with foreign partners, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on Thursday.
On March 11, President Donald Trump in his budget request to Congress for the 2020 fiscal year asked for reserving $500 million for resistance to what he called Russia’s "malicious influence" in Europe. The request envisages assistance to Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia for promoting common security, protecting the territorial integrity of US allies and achieving partner countries’ refusal to use Russian military hardware.
"Even a quick look at the mentioned figures shows that Washington resorts to no end of excuses for its active attempts to hamstring Russia in the international scene and to reorient other countries to cooperation with the United States," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "Besides, this is another bright example of unfair competition policies. The Americans are openly harming our mutually beneficial cooperation with partners in the economy, energy and military-technical sphere in order to promote the interests of their own companies instead."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Trump Administration’s approaches largely continue the policies of its predecessors.
"The US budget provides for the annual funding of so-called aid to countries in Eastern Europe and post-Soviet space. In reality these funds are meant to tighten its grip on them," the commentary runs. "In recent years Washington has disguised this Russophobic campaign as struggle against an ostensible Russian threat."