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And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the [[Kremlin]] that was promoting Uranium One stock.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=0</ref> }}
And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the [[Kremlin]] that was promoting Uranium One stock.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=0</ref> }}
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=== The US empire ===
The United States spends about 7 to 8 times the military budgets of the 7 biggest militaries of the world combined<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCpCA8Rz-PY Why America’s Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think]</ref>
On Dec. 5, 2019, the pro-NATO and pro-Ukraine ''New York Times'' published in an opinion piece:
{{Cquote|With the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 70th anniversary summit in London, it’s fair to say that [[Donald Trump]] thinks that most alliance members, starting with France and Canada, are a bunch of ungrateful and unhelpful freeloaders...
In 2011, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned of a “dim if not dismal future” for the alliance if states such as Germany continued to underspend on defense. Nearly eight years later, a German parliamentary report found that fewer than half of the country’s fighter jets, and not one of its six submarines, were combat worthy. The German defense minister recently announced that she does plan to meet NATO targets on military spending, but not until 2031.
Most other NATO members are no better. Canada, for instance, spends just 1.27 percent of its gross domestic product on defense (the NATO target is 2 percent) and cannot meet its obligations to defend North America’s airspace. When Justin Trudeau was overheard at the summit belittling Trump for taking too long with his press conference, the Canadian prime minister sounded to many Americans like a child whining that a working parent had kept him waiting for supper.
All of this means that when Macron and other European leaders muse about creating an autonomous European defense force, they are, as one seasoned Parisian observer put it to me, “playing with cards they don’t have.” Even sizable increases in defense spending wouldn’t fill the gap that an American departure from Europe would leave: Roughly half of European defense spending goes to salaries and pensions, not warfighting capacity.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/opinion/trump-nato.html NATO Is Full of Freeloaders. But It’s How We Defend the Free World.], ''New York Times'', Dec. 5, 2019</ref>}}
The UK's House of Parliament, House of Commons Library published a resource on August 11, 2022, which states:
{{Cquote|NATO was formed in 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington. Its purpose was to ensure the collective security of its member states and to counter the perceived security threat from the then Soviet Union.
At the heart of the North Atlantic Treaty is Article 5, which states that an attack against one member state shall be considered as an attack against them all.
Article 5 does not necessarily commit an ally to military action in the event of an attack. Instead, it requires members to assist the party or parties attacked with “such action it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”.
Given Article 5’s obligation, member states are advised to maintain adequate defence spending levels, so they have the capacity to act if necessary. This sentiment is formally reflected in the target for NATO members to spend at least 2% of their country’s GDP on defence, set at the 2006 Riga Summit...
Despite all NATO members agreeing to the 2% guideline, few countries have adhered to it.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 drew attention to the declining defence budgets of most NATO members. At the NATO Summit in Wales that year, member states agreed to reverse the trend and aim to spend 2% of GDP on defence by 2024.
Between 2014 and 2022, defence expenditure by NATO members is expected to rise by $140 billion (15%). However, while the number of countries meeting the 2% target has increased over this period, most are still falling short.
...only nine out of 30 member states are expected to meet the 2% spending target in 2022, up from three members in 2014...
Prior to Russia’s invasion, the UK was already meeting the 2% spending target. In 2022 it is expected to spend 2.1% of GDP on defence. This is down from 2.3% in 2020.<ref>[https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/defence-spending-pledges-by-nato-members-since-russia-invaded-ukraine/ Defence spending pledges by NATO members since Russia invaded Ukraine], Published Thursday, 11 August 2022</ref>}}
===Finland and Sweden===
===Finland and Sweden===