The West does not hide the concern in connection with the upcoming joint military exercises of Russia and Belarus in the Baltic region under the symbolic title “the West-2017”. Perhaps it is because of this in the West believe that we are talking about a military operation directed against its interests. Many of those who said: Russia is preparing for war with NATO, and this conflict can be alleged to begin in the Baltic region. All boils down to talking about an aggressive Russia, while the Western Alliance for several years now, groups of power in the same part of the Russian line under the speculation of the media about the attack from the East, which, however, still can not start.
Waste from the historical landfill
Things have gone so far that NATO has openly spins detachments of the Baltic Forest brothers allegedly played a positive role in history. After the Second world war these units were formed from the remnants of the defeated Nazi parts. Linking the heritage of the fascist brothers with modern special units of the Baltic republics to combat Russia, NATO brings to life the ideological garbage from the historical landfill. If a recipe with questionable “heroes of world war II” brought the outcome in the Ukraine, why not to use it in other regions, particularly in the Baltic States and the Balkans?
In such circumstances we are dealing with the “new Baltic” — a region beyond the black sea, where NATO and Russia come into direct confrontation. Therefore, joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises “West-2017” scheduled for the period from 14 to 20 September, with the participation of presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko — are extremely concerned about opponents of Moscow.
Such exercises are held regularly each year. But, despite all their transparency (they, in particular, invited observers from NATO, OSCE and USA), Western officials have described these exercises as preparations for an attack. In exactly the same actions on the part of the American Alliance (in the same region) are presented as entirely peaceful and defensive.
Not helped by the fact that on 13 July, attending the meeting of the Council Russia — NATO at the level of ambassadors, representatives of Moscow has provided his Western colleagues with all necessary information, including the list of tasks that will be practiced, and the list of involved polygons, as well as information about the number of personnel, amount of equipment and types of weapons involved. Moscow said that from the Russian Federation on the territory of Belarus will arrive about three thousand troops and will be shipped 280 military vehicles, and 28 aircraft. But NATO immediately refuted this information, saying that in fact and the soldiers and equipment will be much greater. But even if this is so, we are talking about the sovereign Affairs of Moscow and Minsk.
A few months ago the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite said that the exercises “West-2017” is a provocation and preparation for an open conflict with NATO. “We anxiously anticipated the doctrines “West-2017″, in which are concentrated a very large and aggressive force, is demonstrative preparations for war with the West,” was the opinion of the President of Lithuania. But she, of course, does not explain the complete absence of logic in their arguments: because of the war and attacks are usually done in secrecy, not “defiantly and openly,” as she said.
The irresponsibility of the Washington satellites
And this is not the only and not the blatant stupidity, says the exercises “West-2017”. For example, the Secretary of the national security Council and defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov, Minister of defence of Poland, Anthony Makarewicz and his colleague from Lithuania Raimundas Karoblis openly accused Russia and Belarus in the fact that they plan to seize the territory of Poland and Lithuania (in the district of Suvalki corridor that connects the two countries). This strip length of 65 kilometers, controlled by NATO, cut off Belarus from the Russian Kaliningrad region and the Russian region has no land communication with the rest of the country. Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Andrei Parubiy also expressed concern that Russian soldiers can move on Ukrainian territory and to commit sabotage there.
Of course, none of this would happen, because Moscow and Minsk do not intend to start the conflict first. However, such statements demonstrate the degree of irresponsibility of the anti-Russian-minded politicians who have the full backing of Washington. Capture the Suvalki corridor itself is nothing good in Russia would, because it would provoke a wider conflict. If the conflict between Russia and the West began under any other circumstances, the Russian armed forces would definitely take this land corridor, but he wasn’t the only one captured by the region. In this case, the operation would be conducted throughout the Baltic States, and this corridor very soon “expanded” for a few hundred kilometers. However, now the Kremlin no one thinks to capture the area.
Your doubts about the honesty of Moscow was expressed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He said that the Russian-Belarusian exercises can be much bigger than was stated, without giving, however, no evidence in support of his words. “Judging from the experience of the previous exercises, we have every reason to believe that will involve a lot more troops than officially stated today,” — said Stoltenberg. Polish media reported that Moscow was allegedly sent to Belarus four thousand wagons with soldiers and ammunition.
The West destroys the balance of power in the region
However, they forgot to remind you that Washington recently sent to the Baltic allies nine thousand wagons with military equipment, mainly from the Middle East. Nobody in Moscow did not dramatize the situation, but such actions directly violate the balance of forces in the region. Then why now inflamed the fuss around the Russian export to the territory of the Union of Belarus much less technology? Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow will not refuse from planned exercises with Belarus in favor of Western countries. “We will conduct exercises,” said Lavrov, answering the question, would you like Russia to give them for the sake of “building trust” in relations with the West.
Particularly interesting are the calls emanating from NATO circles, to ensure that “Belarus remained neutral” because she is supposedly “the donor of regional stability.” This all forget that Belarus simply can not be neutral because it is one of the founders of the CSTO, a military Alliance headed by Russia. Besides, Belarus was United with Moscow in the framework of the Union State of Russia and Belarus and the Eurasian Union.
But it is not even an Alliance commitments of Minsk or in a totally meaningless statements about her as a “donor stability” (in the case of a military conflict Belarus first got to the punch). This country has the right to declare their neutral (or other) position. The strategic position of Belarus is too important that it can avoid military action on its soil, and the history of military conflicts in which Russia participated, proved it.
Western media is scaring the public “aggressive Moscow”, but disregard the actions of NATO near the borders of the Union State of Russia and Belarus. Speech, in particular, is scheduled for autumn 2018 in Norway for the NATO exercise “Trident Single — 2018” (Trident Juncture — 2018), which will be attended by more than 35 thousand military personnel. This is almost six times more than the planned six thousand participants of the exercises “West-2017” (for three thousand from Russia and Belarus).
Thus, it becomes clear at least two things. The noise around the fact that Russia and Belarus are preparing for aggression, need only to hide one fact: NATO has launched a much more extensive military activity in regions bordering Russia, from the Baltic to the Balkans. However, the citizens of Western countries should not wonder why their country is involved in all of this, and they all pay it. And secondly, if anyone asks why NATO accelerates a war machine, the answer is: you need to respond to Russian plans to attack the “helpless members” of their Alliance.
A dangerous vicious circle
Thus caught in a vicious circle. Step by step to the East and South-Eastern Europe built up a large military potential on both sides. Rising costs and tensions. Military strategists know very well that an idle army is costly, and that it was futile to keep them in full combat readiness without urgent need. This is done usually in anticipation of a collision, therefore, the trend towards the militarization of Eastern Europe so dangerous.
On the other hand, the military contingent still not so great, so there is still a probability that the situation does not get out of control. However, every soldier and every tank, which is attached to the existing forces, means one more step towards the conflict.
But now not 90-e years of the last century, and it would be an illusion to expect that Moscow itself disarm and surrender NATO. So you need to start a long and gradual process of building trust. The first step would have been the reciprocal lifting of sanctions, and until that happens, we can only expect a further escalation.
In such a situation, do not be surprised if the next military exercises on the Western border of Russia will hold with the participation of 100 thousand or several hundred thousand troops. But then it won’t be just teaching.
