MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. NATO member states continue building up their military expenditures despite the slump in GDP during the pandemic, and this spending together with US appropriations exceed the Russian Army budget by almost 20 times, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said at the Moscow international conference on security on Thursday.
Many in the West keep talking about Russia’s alleged aggressive and expansionist policy, the security chief noted.
"But let us look at the facts: NATO countries continue to allocate larger proportions of funds for military goals. Although the global GDP shrank by more than 6% in the pandemic period in 2020, the alliance’s military spending grew almost by 4%. In absolute figures, NATO’s military expenditures, excluding the United States, exceed the Russian Army budget by almost five times and almost by 20 times, taking the US military appropriations into account," Russia’s security chief emphasized.
"Russia knows well the harmful consequences that the bloc-based policy can bring about for international and regional security," Patrushev pointed out.
"The recent NATO summit demonstrated an unprecedented anti-Russian charge and confirmed the alliance’s claims for the role of a global police force. In this situation, the policy assumed by Russia towards building up its defense capability holds no alternative for us today," the Russian security chief stressed.