Russia accuses ‘frenzied’ Nato of being a masochist

Russia has mocked Nato’s jump in defence spending, branding it ‘political masochism’.

As foreign minister Sergey Lavrov put it, the 5% rise – which Donald Trump hailed a ‘big win for Europe and… Western civilisation’ – is the ‘talk of the town’.

But the Russian official did not seem impressed, instead telling reporters: ‘The growth of military spending in Nato to 5% will not have consequences for Russian policy.’

He added: ‘You see, this is political masochism. At its core lies the frenzied attitude of some leaders that Russia wants and will always pursue its own interests…

‘They want to push us to the backwaters of world politics and surround it with Nato bases, but this will not happen.’

The Kremlin has previously accused Nato of being on a path of rampant militarisation and portraying Russia as a ‘fiend of hell’ to justify its major increase in defence spending.

Russia, which is spending more than 40% of this year’s budget on defence and security, denies any intention to attack a Nato state.

Allies agreed to raise their collective spending goal over the next decade, citing what they called the long-term threat posed by Russia and the need to strengthen the civil and military resilience.

The commitment to raise defence spending involves at least 3.5% of each member state’s GDP on core defence expenditure by 2035, plus up to 1.5% on a broadly defined series of investments loosely connected to security infrastructure.

It represents hundreds of billions of pounds a year from the current goal of 2% of GDP.

The additional spending will be a tall order for European nations, many of which have strained finances.

Leaders also reaffirmed the ‘ironclad commitment’ to the principle that a strike on one Nato member would lead to a response from the full alliance.

The summit in the Hague also did not include a condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as it had a year ago.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said instead: ‘No-one should doubt our capacity or determination should our security be challenged.

‘This is a stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance that our leaders have begun to build.’

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