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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia lashed out at the Pentagon Friday for seeking to increase U.S. defense spending, calling the military budget proposals of President Bush's administration a Cold War relic.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked Congress to approve an increase in defense spending of $18.4 billion to bring the 2002 total to $329 billion.
"Such a significant increase in the U.S. defense budget gives rise to legitimate questions, because it clearly diverges from Washington's public assessments of a 'radically transformed' situation in the world after the end of the Cold War," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The budget proposal of the previous administration was considered insufficient. A proposal is being prepared to raise the military budget for next year by seven percent to the record sum of nearly $330 billion.
"This includes an increase in financing American anti-missile defense alone to $7.5 billion," the statement said.
Moscow opposes U.S. plans for a national missile defense, fearing it will eventually compromise its own nuclear arsenal.
Russia, which continues to maintain a vast nuclear arsenal and superpower-sized army and navy, had a 2000 military budget of about $5 billion.
Copyright 2001 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.
had a 2000 military budget of about $5 billion.
If they had the resources, it would have been a billion-gazzillion dollars...who are they kidding?
FMCDH
Would they like some cheese with that whine?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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