Moscow reminds Washington that the US is a threat to Russia, and that Russia wouldn't hurt a fly

Less than two months ago, Vladimir Putin approved a new national defense strategy that describes the US and NATO as Russia's main security threats. In early February, James Clapper, the current director of America's National Intelligence Program, went before the Senate and warned that Russia and China present significant cyber threats to the United States.

Despite viewing the US as enemy number one, Russia's Defense Ministry says Washington's concerns about a threat from Moscow are nonsense.

Major General Igor Konashenkov says Clapper's remarks were unsurprising, and he accuses him and other American defense officials of trying to frighten lawmakers into diverting more funds to the US military's efforts to contain Russia.

“There's a surge like this every year around this time. The reason is simple: they're discussing the size of next year's military budget,” Konashenkov said. “It's not worth getting excited about,” he added.