US President Joe Biden signed the country’s defense budget for 2022, reported on website White House. The law provides for funds to contain Russia, but the document rejected new sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The final version of the draft also excluded initiatives to limit the sovereign debt of Russia and 35 Russians, including ministers, wealthy businessmen, public figures and journalists, presumably close to the authorities. Such proposals were made by the Republicans, in the fall they were adopted as amendments to the version of the defense budget approved by the House of Representatives. However, when the Senate began to consider the bill, Democrats challenged these initiatives. After that, Congress prepared a new, compromise version of the draft budget.
Related materials:
In addition, the document extended restrictions on cooperation between the Pentagon and the Russian Ministry of Defense and a ban on budget spending on “any actions that recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea.” At the same time, the United States has allocated four billion dollars for the program of the European initiative to contain Russia’s actions. Another 300 million will be directed to military assistance to Ukraine, and 150 million will go to the development of “security cooperation with the Baltic states.”
The defense budget includes over $ 7 billion in spending on programs related to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The American authorities intend to create a commission to study the military campaign in Afghanistan and to include in the bill a ban on the transfer of Pentagon funds and resources to the radical Taliban (banned in Russia).
However, on the day the budget was signed, US Vice President Kamala Harris threatened Russia with “the most powerful” sanctions she had never seen in the world if Russian troops invaded Ukraine. “We make it very clear that Russia should not encroach on the sovereignty of Ukraine,” she said. Harris added that the West is ready to defend the territorial integrity of this country.
#abandons #sanctions #Nord #Stream