At this week's meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, a body meant to improve relations, Russia's deputy defence minister, Anatoly Antonov, was equally blunt.
"The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the US Congress - and in the American body politic writ large - to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defence, " he said.