Moscow Expects More US Forces in Europe Under Trump

Russia expects the United States to deploy extra forces in Europe under Donald Trump's presidency, the Russian permanent representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said Tuesday.

VIENNA (Sputnik) — The White House had requested 40 percent more on defense spending this year as compared to 2016, Alexander Grushko said at the OSCE Annual Security Review Conference in Vienna.

"This means that we should expected an additional deployment of US forces in the European territory," Grushko said.

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the administration of Trump supports the idea of increasing the number of NATO troops in the countries of Eastern Europe.

Following the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, NATO has been boosting its military presence in in Eastern European states, citing Russia's alleged interference in that conflict as justification for the move. A decision of the alliance to deploy four multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland was announced by Stoltenberg after the NATO summit in July 2016.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that amassing troops and military equipment on its borders is provocative, violates past NATO pledges, and can lead to regional and global destabilization.