Russia ‘very significant threat’ to US: Pentagon chief
Russia is a "very, very significant threat" to the national security of the United States, says Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, concurring with top military officials’ assessment.
Carter, who made the remarks on Thursday, was referring to an assessment by a chorus of top military officials, who had made a comparison between Russia and Daesh terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
On July 9, Marine General Joseph Dunford told lawmakers that his assessment was that Russia posed "the greatest threat to our national security."
Carter said he agreed with the assessment "by virtue simply of the size of the nuclear arsenal that it (Russia)'s had."
"Now, that's not new," he said at a Pentagon press conference. "What's new -- and I think also that they were pointing to and where I agree with them -- is that for a quarter century or so, since the end of the Cold War, we have not regarded Russia as an antagonist.”
"Vladimir Putin's Russia behaves, in many respects, as -- in some respects and in very important respects, as an antagonist. That is new. That is something, therefore, that we need to adjust to and counter," Carter added.
The ties between Washington and Moscow deteriorated after US-backed forces ousted Ukraine’s elected president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.
The US and its allies have been accusing Moscow of sending troops into eastern Ukraine in support of the pro-Russian forces, but Moscow has strongly denied involvement in Ukraine's crisis.
Russia says the US is responsible for the escalating tension in Ukraine through sending arms in support of the Ukrainian army.
Carter on Thursday called the Pentagon's strategy with regard to Russia "strong and balanced," saying that the former means the US is "adjusting our capabilities qualitative and in terms of their deployments, to take account of this behavior of Russia," adding, the latter means that “we continue to work with Russia because you can't paint all their behavior with one brush” as the two countries have cooperation on some areas.
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