Baltic nations are increasingly worried that Russian war games set
for this autumn will see President Vladimir Putin send as many as
100,000 troops to Belarus’ border with Lithuania and Poland -- the very
edge of the Kremlin’s sphere of influence with eastern Europe.
At a
recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Russia, Sen. Bob
Menendez, D-New Jersey, said he’d met recently with Baltic ambassadors
who said the planned “Zapad” exercises, set for September, could involve
that many Russian troops, which would be a significant increase on the
number that took part in previous drills under the same name in 2013 and
2009.
U.S. Gen. Phillip Breedlove, who was the Supreme Commander for NATO until May last year, said the name for the exercise -- the Russian word for “west” -- combined with the fact that he’s heard it could involve at least 100,000 troops -- possibly twice that many -- is “a bit alarming.”
“This means that we will be talking with NATO about creating additional standing defence plans, about stationing additional military means and about creating a faster decision making process,” she said.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis told Reuters that the NATO alliance should be prepared to defuse any “provocations” during the Russian drills.
“Presence of such an amount of troops (next to our borders), of course it creates some risks,”Karoblis said. “We will take also our countermeasures, including those with our allies, not to allow any provocations.”
“It’s clear Russia really wants to re-establish its domination, and change defence system in all Europe. It is already threat for central Europe, particularly for Baltics,” he added.
“I’m all for engagement but we also have to recognize reality and what Russia is up to and there’s a decreasing number of areas where we can engage cooperatively and increasing number of areas where we’re going to have to confront Russia,” Mattis said. “I have very modest expectations about areas of cooperation with Mr. Putin.”
U.S. Gen. Phillip Breedlove, who was the Supreme Commander for NATO until May last year, said the name for the exercise -- the Russian word for “west” -- combined with the fact that he’s heard it could involve at least 100,000 troops -- possibly twice that many -- is “a bit alarming.”
“This means that we will be talking with NATO about creating additional standing defence plans, about stationing additional military means and about creating a faster decision making process,” she said.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis told Reuters that the NATO alliance should be prepared to defuse any “provocations” during the Russian drills.
“Presence of such an amount of troops (next to our borders), of course it creates some risks,”Karoblis said. “We will take also our countermeasures, including those with our allies, not to allow any provocations.”
“It’s clear Russia really wants to re-establish its domination, and change defence system in all Europe. It is already threat for central Europe, particularly for Baltics,” he added.
“I’m all for engagement but we also have to recognize reality and what Russia is up to and there’s a decreasing number of areas where we can engage cooperatively and increasing number of areas where we’re going to have to confront Russia,” Mattis said. “I have very modest expectations about areas of cooperation with Mr. Putin.”
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