Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov is confident that Russia doesn’t present any threat to European countries, so the fewer U.S. servicemen are on the continent, the better, TASS reported.
“We’ve never concealed that the fewer U.S. soldiers are on the European continent, the calmer it is in Europe, this position of ours is well-known, especially since after the end of the Cold War bloc standoff there have been no real dangers or threats, and ephemeral threats can be made up as much as you like,” the Kremlin representative told journalists on Thursday.
Talking about the U.S. plans to withdraw 11,900 U.S. servicemen from Germany, the spokesman called this decision “the U.S. internal affair and the issue of bilateral relations between Washington and Berlin.” “We are not going to interfere with these relations or comment them in any way,” the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced on Wednesday the withdrawal of 11,900 U.S. servicemen from Germany: 6,400 will return stateside and about 5,600 will be redeployed to Italy and Belgium while 25,000 servicemen at the most will remain in Germany.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned about these plans in the middle of June. He repeatedly chastised Germany because it, in his opinion, doesn’t spend enough funds to support the collective NATO defense. Earlier Trump had also stated that he didn’t understand why the U.S. should protect Germany from Russia.
