DISINFO: Russia should negotiate only with Washington because 90 per cent of NATO is the US
SUMMARY
For Russia, it would be more convenient to talk about security guarantees in Europe with the US instead of NATO. The reason is that 90 per cent of NATO is the US and it would be easier to understand each other in a bilateral format. There is no point in a dialogue with 30 countries, almost all of them extremely negative towards Russia and even some of them, like the Baltic nations and Poland, expecting a war with Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative against NATO, aiming to push for internal divisions in the Atlantic Alliance.
The claim that “90 per cent of NATO is the US” is patently false: although the US is the country with the highest military expenditure of the Atlantic Alliance, it covers for only 16 per cent of NATO’s running costs, the same figure as Germany and not too far from UK’s 11 per cent and France’s 10,5 per cent, according to NATO’s formula to calculate these costs.
Even in previous periods, the US didn’t pay for more than 22 per cent of the Alliance’s running costs. As for NATO’s decision-making process, they are adopted through consensus and not following US orders, as pro-Kremlin disinformation often claims.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Europe is nothing more than fuel for American cannons, that Europe is a military colony of the US, that Russia will talk directly to the USA as NATO is not a real international organisation or that NATO is an ineffective relic of the Cold War.