St. Petersburg, Russia
War games: Russia staged a massive military drill on NATO’s eastern border this week, a display that some eastern European nations said was a prelude to war. Moscow had claimed that the war games in Russia and neighboring Belarus would involve no more than 12,700 troops—just below the number that would require Russia to let in NATO observers under an international treaty. But NATO leaders said that up to 100,000 troops from all branches of the Russian armed forces were involved. The drill, called Zapad (“West”), simulates a Russian response to an attempt to partition Belarus by a mock enemy called the Western Coalition. It “looks to me like a rehearsal of an attack,” said NATO Supreme Allied Commander Curtis Scaparrotti. “That’s worrisome if you’re a NATO country on the border.”