Us Congress Extended the Ban On the Pentagon-Russia Cooperation

The US Congress extended the ban on cooperation of the Pentagon with the Russian Defense Ministry, says the report on the defense budget for the next fiscal year. It begins on October 1 in the US. The draft budget was approved by both houses of the Congress. The document, in particular, recommends to ban financing of military cooperation between Moscow and Washington. An exception will be made only for certain orders of the US Secretary of Defense. The report advises to extend the assistance to Ukraine in 2019 fiscal year, including $ 250 million for lethal weapons. The authors of the document also note that Russia has violated arms control treaties, modernized nuclear arsenal and tested means of anti-space defense. On July 18, Reuters reported that in the near future it is possible to resume contacts between the defense ministers of the United States and Russia. Sources of the agency report that James Mattis, who harshly criticized Russia, is not against negotiations with Sergey Shoygu. The defense ministers of the two countries neither have met nor talked on the phone since 2015. Later, the head of the United States Central Command Joseph Votel said that the US military does not need to expand cooperation with its Russian counterparts outside the existing format. Source: Radio Liberty