Other events in Baltic States
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Friday, 19.04.2024, 13:05
Russia launches war games on NATO's eastern flank
Russia On
Thursday began major joint military exercises with Belarus along the European
Union's eastern flank -- a show of strength that has rattled nervous NATO
members, informs AFP/LETA.
Named Zapad-2017 (West-2017), the maneuvers, scheduled
to last until September 20, are taking place on the territory of Moscow's
closest ally Belarus, in Russia's European exclave of Kaliningrad and in its
frontier Pskov and Leningrad regions.
Moscow says the drills will involve 12,700 troops, 70
aircraft, 250 tanks and 10 battleships testing their firepower against an
imaginary foe close to borders with Poland and the Baltic States.
In a statement announcing the start of the exercises
Russia's defense ministry insisted the maneuvers are "of a strictly
defensive nature and are not directed against any other state or group of
countries."
But NATO claims Russia has kept it in the dark and
seems to be massively underreporting the scale of the exercises, which some of
the alliance's eastern members insist could see more than 100,000 servicemen
take part.
The war games come with tensions between Russia and
NATO at their highest since the Cold War due to the Kremlin's meddling in
Ukraine and the US-led alliance bolstering its forces in eastern Europe.
Moscow has dismissed fears over the drills - the
latest in a series of annual exercises that rotate around the vast country - as
fuelled by the "myth about the so-called 'Russian threat'".
But for NATO allies, especially jittery members such
as Poland and the Baltic States which only broke free from Moscow's grip 25
years ago, such reassurances have not dampened suspicion.
"This is designed to provoke us, it's designed to
test our defenses and that is why we have to be strong," Britain's Defense
Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC last week. "Russia is testing us and
testing us now at every opportunity. We see a more aggressive Russia, we have
to deal with that."
Moscow has held a stream of exercises since ties with
the West plunged in 2014 over Ukraine, with the military claiming some drills
included nearly 100,000 troops.
Minsk has said the games will role play a conflict
with a made-up rebel region backed by neighboring European nations. Russia says
they will simulate assaults by "extremist groups" trying to carry out
"terrorist attacks".
Russian military expert Alexander Golts told AFP that Moscow "very skillfully manipulates the figures
for such drills because it does not want to have to invite foreign
observers".
"Russia at every drill is working on one and the
same scenario -- how to deploy troops quickly," he said.
The Kremlin has vigorously defended its right to hold
exercises and has long blamed the United States for ratcheting up tensions by
expanding NATO up to its borders and holding its own provocative drills.
The Russian war games come as Ukraine on Monday launched
annual joint military exercises with the U.S. and a host of other NATO
countries.
Meanwhile non-aligned Sweden has mobilized 19,000
soldiers for its biggest drills in 20 years which also include units from
across Scandinavia and the U.S.