Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
The Kremlin criticizes NATO's air defence plans, calling them costly for European taxpayers and confrontational, as NATO seeks a significant increase in defence spending.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Monday that NATO's plan for a huge boost to its air and missile defence capabilities was confrontational and would come at the expense of European taxpayers who were being asked to pay to defuse a threat that did not exist.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who is pushing for members to boost defence spending to 3.5% of GDP and commit a further 1.5% to broader security-related spending, was due to use a speech in London on Monday to say that the alliance needed a 400% increase in air and missile defence.
Asked about Rutte's planned remarks on air and missile defence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:
"(NATO) is not an instrument for maintaining stability and security on the continent. It is an instrument created for confrontation and has so far kept its true nature disguised. Now it is showing its real nature."
Peskov said European taxpayers were the ones who would suffer.
"European taxpayers will spend their money to defuse some threat that they say comes from our country, but it is nothing but an ephemeral threat," said Peskov.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Editing by Andrew Osborn/Mark Trevelyan)
The Kremlin described NATO's air defense plan as confrontational and suggested it would burden European taxpayers.
Mark Rutte is NATO Secretary General advocating for member countries to increase defense spending to 3.5% of GDP.
Dmitry Peskov stated that NATO is not an instrument for stability but rather one created for confrontation, revealing its true nature.
The Kremlin claims that European taxpayers will bear the costs of addressing a threat from Russia, which they argue is an exaggerated concern.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
