'F**k US imperialism': Germany's ex-finance minister slams defense secretary's Europe visit

Left-wing German politician and former finance minister Oskar Lafontaine had some harsh words for the US on its politics concerning Russia and Ukraine. He has also called on the EU to oppose Washington.

In a Facebook post which cannot be quoted fully quote due to strong language, Lafontaine, whose latest political post was co-chairman of the democratic socialist party The Left, called US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter the "Secretary of War", and Washington's policies "imperialism."

"Fuck the US-Imperialism" - US-"Verteidigungs-" also -Kriegsminister in BerlinDer US-Kriegsminister ruft die Europäer...Posted by Oskar Lafontaine on 22 Июнь 2015 г.

"The US Secretary of War calls on Europeans to confront the Russian 'aggression'," Lafontaine writes after a strongly-worded introduction. "The Europeans have every reason to oppose the US aggression."

Ashton Carter has paid a visit to Tallinn, where he pledged a new batch of 250 tanks and armored vehicles to European nations near the Russian border. His counterparts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were eager to accept the deployment, indicating they see it as a message to Russia over what they call its "aggression."

Lafontaine then cites the “Grand Master of US diplomacy" George Kennan, who served as US ambassador to the Soviet Union in the 1950s and to Yugoslavia in the 1960s. Kennan "described the eastward expansion of NATO as the biggest mistake of the US foreign policy after the Second World War," Lafontaine writes, "because they have resulted in a new Cold War."

"The US diplomat Victoria Nuland said, we have spent more than five billion dollars to destabilize Ukraine," Lafontaine's Facebook post goes on, presumably referring to Nuland's February 2014 statement that since 1991, Washington invested $5 billion in "democratic institutions" in Ukraine.

The EU recently agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia for six more months. The introduction of those sanctions was highly encouraged by the US, but according to a recent study, they are hurting the EU more than initially expected, threatening some 2.5 million jobs.

READ MORE: Anti-Russian sanctions hurt Europe harder than expected, threaten 2.5mn jobs – study

Lafontaine also reminds readers of a leaked phone call where Nuland allegedly said "f**k the EU" to the US ambassador in Kiev, and concludes: "You continue to play with fire, and Europe has paid with revenue declines in trade with Russia and the loss of jobs ... We need a European foreign policy that restrains the warmongering US imperialism!"