Russian military troops take part in a military drill on Sernovodsky polygon close to the Chechnya border, some 260 kilometers from the southern Russian city of Stavropol, March 19, 2015. IMAGE: AFP
Russia is preparing to hold the biggest military drill for almost 40 years, since Soviet Union times.
China and Mongolia will also participate in the drills and will be of “unprecedented” scale, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, cited by RT. The series of drills, titled Vostok-2018 will take place in Russia’s Siberia and Far east and will be “of unprecedented scale when it comes both to geographical coverage and to the total number of troops and forces taking part in it,” the Russian defense minister added.
Shoigu also said that the drills will be bigger than the biggest exercises held in Soviet time in 1981 on the territory of Belarus, Ukraine, three Baltic republics and some countries in the Warsaw Pact.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said President Vladimir Putin could attend the exercise.
The total number of troops that will partake in the exercise has not been confirmed. China has announced that it will send upwards of 3,000 troops to participate. RT also cited the Chinese Defense Ministry who said that More than 900 pieces of military hardware as well as 30 warplanes and helicopters will also be deployed to Russia as part of the exercise.
The drills are poised to exceed the scale of the Zapad-2017 exercises, staged by Russia last year. As RT reported those drills – which involved some 12,700 troops, 70 military aircraft, 10 ships and some 680 ground vehicles – sparked accusations that Russia had surpassed the declared number of troops participating, and even more alarming claims that the drills were cover for an “invasion” of neighboring countries.
RT reported that the Zapad wargames, despite their deterring and defensive nature, were widely used by NATO officials and mass media to fuel the Russian aggression narrative and to further justify the NATO building of forces in Eastern Europe.
Back in 2017, as a response to Zapad-2017 Poland organized its “national” Dragon 17 exercise. It was national only formally, since it involved contingents from the US, the UK, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Ukraine. The troops that partook in Dragon 17 far exceeded those that were part of Zapad-2017.
Military Times reported that a smaller, separate exercise took place on August 20th under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security group dominated by Moscow and Beijing, Chinese warplanes landed Monday at a Russian air base in the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains.
Military Times also reported that the Russian military has increased both the scope and frequency of its maneuvers amid tensions with the West. It also has expanded military ties with China. The outlet further claims that the two countries have forged what they described as a “strategic partnership,” expressing their shared opposition to the “unipolar” world — the term they use to describe perceived U.S. global domination.
NATO also held large military drills, notably Saber Strike 18, which took place between June 3rd and June 15th. The massive US-led exercise involved 18,000 soldiers from 19 nations, primarily NATO members. The exercise took place near the Russian border in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Moscow responded to the exercises as calling it a provocation and that it increases “mutual distrust.” US Army Europe said that “Saber Strike 18 is not a provocation of Russia but an exercise with our allies. This is what normal deterrence business looks like.”
Before the exercise took place, Poland revealed that it is considering proposing a permanent deployment of US troops to the country, Russia denounced the move as a “gradual expansion of NATO” towards its borders.
There is also a massive NATO military exercise that is to take place in October. Trident Juncture will include 40,000 U.S. and allied troops which will converge on the sea and in the air over Norway. The exercise will envisage an armed attack against Norway, a scenario that presumably seems real after the recent increase in tensions between Russia and NATO. Sweden, a country which has an “enhanced opportunity” partnership with NATO, has never taken part in exercises in the past, however will take part in Trident Juncture.
The NATO exercises are a show of force and part of the US Department of Defense’s policy of strengthening deterrence against Russia in Europe.
Vostok-2018 is also a defensive exercise and is purely aimed at deterrence. It also will be a presentation of military power by Russia and China.
We Americans know what Russia, China and Mongolia have been planning and prepared in 40 years: Operation asorabraB. But we are ready to defend our freedom. You can bite yourself in the nose about that.
Are you suggesting that China and Russia will attack the US? If so, you’re sorely mistaken as it’s the US that is on the offensive, inciting unrest, undermining governments around the planet.
He is a troll paid by response and for defacing an independent site, don’t feed the troll by answering, let him die consuming ratburgers.
Lol. The freedom of a surveillance and police state. Its fast getting like that in the UK as well :) The thieves roam free and the populace is fined hundreds of pounds for ‘not sorting their rubbish ‘ and other such trivia. :)
Increasingly in the UK frig all works as it should. De Facto ‘children ‘ are employed as prison warders (guards) by G4S and a riot in the Victorian Birmingham jail a couple of years ago was not promptly quelled as none of them would take the initiative to stop it. Health and Safety Rules gone mad.
The jail is now a virtual no go area for the child staff as drugs and violence rage in the filthy rodent infested jail. The UK Government has now taken over the jail, this is 13 months after a Government inspection found the prison regime to be way below the standards being paid for by the taxpayers.
My friend was an inmate there for about 18 months and during my visits there the staff were polite but many were very young women and men in a Cat A/B men’s prison. The bacon sandwiches from the visiting room canteen were good though :)
True. Incredible we continue to return to old bad habbits. We only had a short period of Woodstock before the elite quickly returned us to good old feudalism.
It is easier to appreciate the exponents of feudalism and the various power groups that adopted it , if the history of nations that has evolved over many hundreds or thousands of years are studied. For English speakers, Britain is the obvious choice.
The US only has a short history of feudalism, post the genocide of the American Indians and there is far less of a pattern there to study. The US however is under a feudal system today that is essentially built on the debt of the majority that funds the real assets of the few and the public debt that is used to incarcerate the few citizens of the lower orders who also have no debt. Even in prison such people are used to enrich their masters.
Lol asshole you lost your freedoms under the Homeland Security Act and Patriot Act which violated every artical of the Constitution, and here you are bleating about something that you threw away,after all Bush did say the Constitution was nothing but a GD piece of paper and promplly wiped his ass with it…,
Define freedom first, because that thing may have different meanings now a days.
Freedom to not be whipping boys to vodka drinking, rice gnashing, gnom horse riding commies.
Freedom to be shot at schools by mentally ill people?, freedom to be molested or even raped by millions of sexual offenders? freedom to buy drugs at any corner as if they were candies?, freedom to be discriminated because of your race, religion or language? freedom to be brainwashed everyday by your fake media?, AWESOME!!!
Freedom to be silenced? Freedom to owe everthing to the bank? Freedom to support tyrannical regimes overseas yet have your bridges and roads crumble at home??
Fuxk that
Freedom to do it the American way!
Sorry Tommy, don’t count me in with ‘your’ group of Americans.
Either you are an American and with freedom, or you are with the terrorists. There is no in between.
Baloney.
Mongolia is going to invade the US and take away yer free-dumb?…
What a fuktard.
To invade and take land is in their blood. The Mongol Empire existed during the 13th and 14th centuries and was the largest contiguous land empire in history. 1227 (Genghis Khan’s death): 13,500,000 km2 …1294 (Kublai’s death): 23,500,000 km2
I don’t think this is a serious comment. It is either written in jest, or as provocative bait. “Bite yourself in the nose” is not an idiom in the English language or a phrase Americans use.
«cutting off your nose to spite your face« = securing you can do a self-destructive act.
Yes – but not “biting” ones nose. I think you are being provocative – and likely expressing an opinion opposite of what you believe (=trolling)
Close. Reverse trolling.
Nope. Just called you out