Biden briefed Congress on US troops stationed in Europe

Acting US President Joe Biden has reported to Congress on the presence of 80,000 US military personnel on the territory of European countries. The corresponding letter of the American president to the leadership of both houses of the U.S. Congress on December 6 was published on the website of the White House.

"About 80 thousand servicemen of the Armed Forces of the United States are sent or deployed in the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe", - stated in the publication.

Biden noted that the U.S. military stay on the territory of the countries of Europe allegedly for the purpose of "reassuring allies" and deterring Russia.

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Earlier, on November 26, Director of the Russian Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov said that NATO is accelerating its penetration into the Arctic and Baltic regions. In addition, the alliance is trying to expand its combat capabilities in the Black Sea and gain access to the Caspian Sea. According to Bortnikov, the military threat from NATO is steadily increasing.

The next day, on November 27, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, responding to Izvestia's question, said that NATO cannot call itself a defense bloc for a long time, as the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance has spread to continents where "it has never existed before." She added that the whole world has seen NATO's "really aggressive campaigns" to destroy nations. This was the case, in particular, in Libya and Afghanistan.