Russian lawmaker sees risks in US arms buildup in Europe

Russian Politics & Diplomacy April 06, 2016, 17:02

Konstantin Kosachyov believes that "the US military is impressed by Russia’s military successes in Syria and growth in military contracts for Russian weapons in the world"

MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. US plans for stepping up military spending in order to support its allies in Europe by no means help ease risks in the continent, but on the contrary will exacerbate them, the head of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, said about US President Barack Obama’s statement about Washington’s intention to supply military hardware to Europe for increasing its ability to resist a "Russian aggression."

Kosachyov believes that "the US military is impressed by Russia’s military successes in Syria and growth in military contracts for Russian weapons in the world."

"No immediate conclusions should follow, though, to the effect the very same weapons will be demonstrated some place in the Baltic area. Europe’s saturation with weapons will soon be not a factor for stability but an exacerbation of risks," Kosachyov said.

He believes that the Pentagon and the White House should stop catering to the military’s expectations by inventing phantom threats and taking more effective measures against the real ones, although a "Russian threat" is a very handy and long familiar argument that can surely help push the military budget through Congress."

"But, the way I see it, in the run-up to elections congressmen should give more thought to the well-being of their electorate, and not fanning more old-time ‘Russians are coming!’ fears," Kosachyov said. "If there is a place where Russians may be going, they are invite the United States to work together to fight against number one threat to all of us," he said.

At a meeting with journalists at the White House on Tuesday Obama declared that Washington was investing into the armed forces to enable them to deter aggression and guarantee the security of the United States and its allies.

"We’re investing in capabilities that our military needs to deter aggression and defend our security and that of our allies, and this includes increases in our posture in Europe to reassure NATO allies in the light of particularly increased aggressive actions by Russia," Obama claimed. US spending on the so-called initiative for enhancing European security is to go up nearly four-fold to $3.4 billion in 2017.

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