“We should not forget that NATO still remains a key threat to Russia’s national security,” Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said in an interview with Kommersant daily on July 16, reported TASS. He drew attention to the fact that “according to official data alone, the size of the alliance’s military personnel equals over 4 million troops and the bloc has over 50,000 tanks and armored fighting vehicles, more than 7,000 combat aircraft and over 750 warships at its disposal.” The planned “boost in military spending will only strengthen this potential.”
“Besides, we should not forget that the alliance’s member states operate a cluster of about 350 military and civilian satellites that are being actively used against Russia in the Ukraine conflict. Moreover, this figure does not take into account thousands of Starlink satellites.”
Shoigu also charged that the Europeans may try to engage in deception regarding increases in defense spending agreed to at the June NATO summit. “No wonder the first results of the new defense budget process will be summed up in 2029, when Donald Trump’s presidential term expires. It is possible that the Europeans, who have made deceit an integral part of their foreign policy strategy, plan to cheat the US president, abandoning their commitments,” he said.
