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US officials are planning to rush through a major Bill that will dramatically bolster funding for anti-Russian propaganda and intelligence support to Ukraine, it was announced on Tuesday.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was fast-tracking the Bill, which will see $500 million (£370m) from the Foreign Military Financing programme sent to Ukraine for 2022, straight to the House of Representatives.
The Bill could be voted on as early as next week.
The legislation would give Ukraine priority for excess defence equipment transfer and aid the country’s cyber defence, paving the way for US sanctions in the event of any cyber attack.
Funds would also be spent on anti-Russian propaganda channelled through media outlets, including the CIA-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which was established during the cold war as an explicitly anti-communist news organisation pumping propaganda into the Soviet states.
The Bill also authorises sanctions if President Joe Biden believes Russia has engaged in a “significant escalation in hostilities.”
It could see Russian President Vladimir Putin targeted along with senior government and military officials.
Russian financial institutions, energy producers and those involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which some say is one of the reasons for the US drive to war, would also be threatened.
The European Union and Nato have joined Washington in its aggressive drive to war with Russia, ratcheting up the pressure on a number of fronts.
The US has delivered 90 tons of “lethal aid” as weapons flow into Ukraine while mobilising war ships to the Black Sea and a surge in troops encircling Russia.
At the same time a propaganda war waged through Western mainstream media has sought to portray Russia as the aggressor, despite Moscow’s insistence that it has no plans for military intervention in Ukraine.
Much of this has been dismissed as “Western hysteria” by Russia, which has accused intelligence services of running a “psy-ops” campaign to soften public opinion for war.
On Tuesday US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Ukrainian officials had been informed and explicitly involved in its written response to Russia’s proposals on security guarantees.
He said that any Russian incursion would be met with “a swift, severe and united response” from the US and its allies.
