Back in Washington, they reacted rather nervously to the meeting between the Russian president and the German chancellor. During the negotiations between Putin and Merkel, the US media spread information that the States are ready to impose sanctions against the members of Nord-Stream 2. Donald Trump is at it again, promoting American interests around the world by any means necessary. This year, the US adopted the largest military budget in its history. It's larger than the total budget of the next ten states and has specific lines that allocate funds to deterring Russia and China.
Alexander Khristenko with the details.
The US tried to make the signing of its most expensive defense budget look fancy. A quick force projection was demonstrated to Donald Trump. The allocated funds, $716 billion, are supposed to be spent quickly by the Pentagon and military contractors.
Increasing the army's budget was one of Trump's election promises. And he's still carrying it out despite the US's national debt exceeding $21 trillion increasing it by a sum that equals an annual Pentagon budget over the last six months.
Donald Trump, US President: "We have $716 billion to give you the finest planes, ships, tanks, and missiles anywhere on Earth. America is a peaceful nation, but if conflict is forced upon us, we'll fight and we'll win. Right, Generals? Gotta believe it, Generals".
The US will spend the money to develop new low-yield nuclear warheads for their submarines buy 135 Abrams tanks, 60 Bradley IFVs 60 Apache helicopters, and 77 F-35 fighter jets as well as 10 P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance anti-submarine aircraft — the ones that Russian fighters often intercept over the Black and Baltic Seas. It seems that the Poseidons will keep visiting us. The NATO bases Sigonella in Italy and Lossiemouth in Britain will build new infrastructure for the reconnaissance aircraft. All that is just a small part of what the US has planned for the next year within the framework of the so-called European Deterrence Initiative against Russia.
Many factions will have their slice of the $6 billion-pie. Poland will get new railroads and military formation points that cost dozens of millions of dollars. There will be a munitions depot not far from Mihail Kogălniceanu in Romania. Bulgaria will receive the smallest sum — $5 million. There will be a new village with an ammunition depot. In the Baltics, there will be a base for Estonian special forces. The Ramstein Air Base in Germany will receive a generous gift. Tens of millions of dollars have been allocated for the naval stations Souda Bay in Greece and Rota in Spain of which the latter being already completely financed by the US. The 2019 US defense budget, which focuses on opposing Russia, was named after Senator John McCain.
"This year's defense budget gives us an important opportunity to efficiently counteract a growing number of challenges. I'm touched by the fact that my fellow senators decided to name the bill after me".
McCain can't vote remotely from Arizona, where he's receiving his brain cancer treatment, but he keeps writing anti-Russian bills. Together with other senators, he's introduced a new one: Bill 3336 will impose new sanctions on Russia. His writing full of threats and restrictions didn't even fit into 100 pages. Another page contains the text of the bill, explaining that sanctions can be imposed on any financial instrument with a maturity of more than 14 days that the US President considers to be Russian state debt. The debts of Russian state banks can also be restricted. Trump's administration is preparing separate sanctions, threatening not only Moscow but also their European NATO allies.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a set of measures against the members of the Nord-Stream 2 pipeline project is ready. The US is also going to punish various countries for purchasing Russian weapons and trading with Iran.
Neil Bhatia, CNAS: "If you use them too much and do it recklessly your international weight gradually decreases if you don't have enough allies. If the rest of the world doesn't understand your reasons for imposing new sanctions, they might decide not to obey them".
The sanctions regime is starting to fall apart. The EU has started to block the US's sanctions against Iran. Beijing has also announced that it's not going to stop working with Tehran. They are going to work more closely instead. Despite being threatened with sanctions by the US and denied shipments of F-35 fighter jets Turkey hasn't refused to purchase the Russian S-400 air defense systems. Thus, the American sanctions don't only fail to fulfill their purpose but also boomerang back and hit those who launched them.
Alexander Khristenko, Nikolai Koskin Vesti, Washington, the USA.
