MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/. European authorities are trying to portray Russia as an "external enemy" in order to collect more taxes from their populations for their defense capabilities, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalist Pavel Zarubin.

"Having lost their very cheap American security umbrella, Europeans are now building their own defense identity. This costs a great deal of money. To do so, they must take their taxpayers out of their comfort zones by forcing them to pay significantly more in higher rent, taxes, electricity, and gasoline," he explained.

The spokesman noted that voters do not like this. "How do you convince voters? By inventing an enemy. What kind of enemy is most convincing? A big one, a large, powerful one," Peskov emphasized.