The US Congress Approved the Military Budget. It Includes Assistance for Ukraine

The US Senate has approved the draft defense budget for next year, which includes $ 300 million to support the armed forces of Ukraine. The adopted document was sent to US President Joe Biden for approval. The 2022 US military expenses were estimated by the authorities at $ 770 billion. This is five percent more than last year's budget. They want to allocate four billion dollars from the budget to support the European Defense Initiative and 150 million for the defense of the Baltic states. The military budget for next year does not provide for sanctions against the Russian-German Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. The gas pipeline project, as the American authorities believe, threatens the energy security of Europe and is designed to harm Ukraine – at the moment gas transits through its territory. The Biden administration, however, opposed the legislative consolidation of possible sanctions, saying that it could complicate relations with Germany. On December 15, a group of Republican senators presented a bill on the introduction of these sanctions in the event of a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and on a significant increase in security assistance to Kiev. The bill provides for financing the purchase of weapons, training and reforms in the defense sector in Ukraine. In total, the senators propose to allocate another $ 450 million for this. During the adoption of the defense budget, the US Senate also approved an amendment to combat the abuse of Interpol mechanisms for political reasons. The authors of the amendment, Senators Roger Wicker and Ben Cardin, point out that some Interpol member countries sent requests to the agency in order to persecute political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists. The senators name Russia, China and Turkey among the worst violators. According to the senators, the abuse of Interpol’s mechanisms led to the fact that “countless innocent people” were put on the international wanted list and handed a “Red Notice” to Interpol countries. This is a document with a request for the arrest of persons who are on the international wanted list, which obliges the participating countries to extradite the arrested to the country that submitted the notification. The authors of the amendment propose to cancel the extradition of those arrested in the United States only on the basis of a “Red Notice”.

• In 2021, the United States allocated $250 million to support Ukraine. A year earlier – 200 million.
• The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline has already been completed, but not certified. On December 12, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock explained this by saying that the Nord Stream-2 project does not meet European legal standards, so it cannot be launched yet. After her statement, the price of gas in Europe exceeded $ 1,400 per thousand cubic meters for the first time since the beginning of October.
• The USA, Ukraine and a number of EU countries oppose the construction of the gas pipeline. The new Chancellor of Austria, Karl Nehammer, spoke out for the project and against the imposition of sanctions.

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