Grushko spoke about Russia's response to the increase in NATO military spending

The level of Russia's defense capability allows it to respond to any military threat without prejudice to its growth rate and the implementation of social programs, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Izvestia.

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"We will not allow our defense capability and our security to weaken, but we will not get involved in a costly arms race. Thanks to the efforts made by the president and the government in recent years, we have been able to reach a level that allows us to respond to any military threat, taking into account the interests of developing the Russian economy and avoiding damage to its growth rate, implementing social programs, and so on," the diplomat stressed.

At the same time, the total amount of military budgets of NATO countries today exceeds half of global expenditures, Alexander Grushko told Izvestia.

"This is a huge amount of money that is actually being withdrawn from peaceful development and thrown away. It is also a consolidation of dependence on the United States. The United States openly demands that the increased costs it seeks be used to purchase weapons and equipment from the United States of America. This is a clear technological link: if you buy, say, an F-35 aircraft with a life cycle of 30-40 years, then you are dependent on the manufacturer, that is, on the United States," Grushko explained.

NATO's actions in military planning, infrastructure development, and command structure reformatting are a reproduction of the Cold War with very serious consequences for stability and peace in Europe and globally.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump demanded to raise their target from 2% to 5% of GDP. Secretary General Mark Rutte proposed a compromise: 3.5% for defense and another 1.5% of GDP for infrastructure and military—industrial complex development. However, even the current figure of 2% of GDP was reached by 2024 by only 22 of the 32 NATO countries.

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