Russian Army Engineering tanks drive near the Baikal Lake on July 17
Pentagon intelligence agencies are closely watching Russian and Chinese war games now taking place in Europe and Asia involving tens of thousands of troops.
Meanwhile, NATO military forces are set to conduct large-scale maneuvers in November that will be designed to counter growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment, according to U.S. officials.
“The Russians are moving forces closer to Europe, and that is troubling,” said a military official.
Russia’s Zapad-13 military exercises in Belarus are scheduled to end Thursday. They included practice attacks on a western state, said one official familiar with reports of the maneuvers.
Some 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops took part with over 60 aircraft and helicopters and up to 250 vehicles.
The forces practiced “rapid reaction” drills.
Russian officials recently denied Polish press reports that the Zapad-13 would include a notional nuclear attack on Warsaw. However, Russian officials have said the war games will involve practicing precision air and missile strikes.
On the Russian air base, Russian air force chief Lt. Gen. Vladimir Bondarev announced in June that the air base for Su-27 jets in Belarus would be opened near the city of Lida, near the border with Poland and Lithuania.
Bondarev said the warplanes would bolster a 1997 defense agreement between the two countries in response to NATO expansion.
It will be Russia’s first military base in Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and along with it the Warsaw Pact, in 1991. Moscow currently has military bases in Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has moved away from democracy and shifted the former Soviet republic away from Europe and toward Russia, restoring many symbols from Soviet Belarus.
In response to Polish press reports on the simulated nuclear strike on Poland’s capital, state-run Interfax news agency in April denied the reports. “Claims that West 2013 will allegedly practice a preventive nuclear strike on Warsaw are nothing but imagination of Polish journalists,” a high-ranking officer was quoted as saying.
Belarusian Deputy Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Pyotr Tsikhanowski said in June, “The theme of the exercise is the training and the engagement of troops in order to ensure the military security of the Union State [of Belarus and Russia].” New weapons and military equipment will be tested during the exercises, he added.
War game scenarios include an “escalation of relations with countries based on interethnic, interreligious differences, and territorial claims,” he said.
“At the same time, the conflicting states are hypothetically located within the actual borders of Belarus and the three western and northwestern regions of Russia,” Tsikhanowski said.
U.S. military officials said the war games are part of a larger Russian effort to use military power to bolster its position in the former Soviet republics with a larger military presence.
Russia also has a ballistic missile warning radar at Baranovichi, Belarus, and a Navy communications facility used to communicate with Russian submarines. Moscow also supplied Belarus with advanced S-300 missile defenses and Tor-M2 surface-to-air missiles.
The exercises drew criticism from Eastern European NATO governments.
“Russia has officially stated that these are anti-terrorism exercises,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas told AFP. “But the number of participants and amount of military equipment indicates that that this is not their agenda.”
http://freebeacon.com/russia-china-hold-large-scale-war-games/
Polish press claims the Russian war games include a simulated nuke attack on Warsaw. Russia is building its first foreign soil military base since the Soviet Union. Large-scale wargames with China. You guys still think I'm all wrong about Russia?
Honestly, personally I don't care I just look at the world and try to figure it out because it's interesting to me. From what I can tell, under Putin Russia has been on, and continues, a track toward asserting itself on its neighbors. I can foresee down the road Russia getting more aggressive and pushing on its neighbors, and using its military power as leverage in re-asserting control over the former soviet bloc -- nations that are democratic now, and don't want and are leary of Russian control.
Meanwhile, I guess folks like Seagypsy say it's the Americans and West who are the bad guys here and we should just all do business with China and for Australia anyway that "they're making us rich" as SG said in the mideast thread. All you guys are so anti-American, WHAT do you want the US and West to do? Should we lay down and let China and Russia expand unchecked, am I wrong to be concerned about Putin and Russian nationalism?
Some Polish are very concerned about Russia, but at the end of the day I guess neither the average American nor Australian cares about Poland? Nobody cares, until it's too late and you're too weak and then you've got a real problem on your hands.
So guys, what should the West do here? Ignore these trends going on with Russia? Is NATO right or wrong to check Russia tit for tat? What's your honest opinion, is it just "who's John Galt" and nothing matters and we can all bash the USA while Russia and China do whatever they want? Is there any point at all where you anti-americans would ever start being concerned about Russia and China? Why is hating on the US so vogue and the same people, who live in Western countries no less, are silent on Putin and China?
