Russian war games rattle West
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin observed Russia’s biggest war games in years yesterday, watching as his forces successfully repelled an imaginary enemy and launched a tankled counteroffensive, part of an exercise that has rattled the West.
Nato officials say they are monitoring the ‘‘Zapad2017’’ (‘‘West2017’’) war games with ‘‘calm and confidence’’, but many are unnerved about what they see as Moscow testing its ability to wage war against the West. Russia says the exercise is rehearsing a purely defensive scenario.
Putin, commanderinchief of Russia’s armed forces, sat in a command centre flanked by his defence minister and the chief of his General Staff, and used binoculars to peer through a cold drizzle at the simulated conflict unfolding before his eyes.
The overarching Zapad war games, which began on September 14 and run to September 20, are taking place in western Russia, Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, and Belarus, a Russian ally which borders Ukraine, as well as Nato member states Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
Moscow says almost 13,000 Russian and Belarussian service personnel are taking part, as well as around 70 planes and helicopters. It says almost 700 pieces of military hardware are being deployed, including almost 250 tanks, 10 ships and various artillery and rocket systems.
Nato officials have said they believe the exercises involve more troops than Moscow has disclosed, however, and have complained about what they say is the lack of transparency about the exercise, an allegation Russia rejects. — Reuters