On Thursday, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that Russia and China pose the greatest threat to US security, followed by Iran and Cuba.
"We were not surprised by the loud statements of US security officials who saw Russia as the main threat to US national security. Such a wave rises every year at the same time. The reason is simple – the discussion of the size of the military budget in Congress for the next year," spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
He added that the idea of the "Russian threat" is not something new and that the Pentagon uses it to manipulate the US Congress.
"It’s important to remember that the ‘Russian threat’ remains the most successfully ‘selling’ threat for the Pentagon since the middle of the last century and not only to the US Congress, but also to NATO partners," Konashenkov emphasized.
Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama sent his $4.1 trillion budget proposal to the US Congress. The budget includes a proposed $582.7 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund the Department of Defense.
The proposed budget portion for the US military would quadruple last year’s request for the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) to $3.4 billion in a bid to reassure NATO allies against Russia.
