- Russia, Belarus Joint Drills Used As Pretext For NATO War Preparations
by PETER KORZUN, https://www.strategic-culture.org/
«Zapad-2017» is a joint strategic military exercise of Russia and Belarus scheduled for September 14-20, 2017. NATO, the United Nations, the OSCE and other countries have been invited to send their observers. In compliance with provisions of the Vienna Document, Russia presented detailed information about the exercise on July, 13. A special briefing is planned for the OSCE. Before the exercise starts there will be an extended briefing held in Moscow. NATO officials want Russia to abide by the Vienna Document. That is exactly what Moscow and Minsk are doing. But…the alliance believes that problems remain.
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Despite the policy of transparency adopted by the organizers of the exercise, NATO officials express concern and make hostile statements to instigate tensions. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite views the upcoming event as «demonstrative preparations for the war with the West». Russia’s ambassador to Lithuania, Aleksandr Udaltsov, said that the hullaballoo raised about the upcoming drills was nothing else but fearmongering. According to him, «The hysteria which is being whipped up in Lithuania is meant to score political points and justify the militaristic psychosis».
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Concocted stories are going round to say that Russia wants to grab a part of Polish and Lithuanian territories in the Suwalki gap region. Baltic officials have warned that Russia may leave troops in Belarus after the exercise. Estonian Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna strongly believes that’s what will happen. According to him, Estonia and other NATO countries possess intelligence to confirm this statement. The Russian ambassador in Minsk, Aleksandr Surikov, called the stories «unhealthy speculation».
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According to official data, around 13,000 personnel will take part in the exercise at most. About 10,200 troops will be involved on the territory of Belarus, including 7,200 Belarusian military and about 3,000 Russia’s servicemen. 680 pieces of military hardware, including armored vehicles, would take part in the exercise at six different training grounds scattered across the two countries. Evidently, these forces pose no threat to the North Atlantic alliance, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is skeptical, saying, «From previous experiences related to previous exercises, we have every reason to believe that it may be substantially more troops participating than the official reported numbers».
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Some NATO members believe the true number of participating troops will be 100,000. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis finds such a large buildup «simply destabilizing».
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