MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - The United States has formed a group consisting of 60,000 military personnel, 200 tanks and 150 combat planes in Europe with the aim of posing a constant threat to Russia, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Mikhail Popov said.
"Their [U.S.] main goal in Europe is to create a constant threat to our country. To this end, a sizeable group of the U.S. Armed Forces made up of more than 60,000 servicemen, 200 tanks and some 150 combat planes has been formed in the region," Popov said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
"Since 2014, the Pentagon has been implementing the anti-Russian European Deterrence Initiative program, which receives $4 billion-$5 billion from the U.S. military budget annually," he said.