To counter what it called the “aggressive and unfriendly” attitude towards it, Russia has carried out the biggest war games during peace time in its history, involving 300,000 troops who were joined by 3500 Chinese and some Mongolian troops. Known as Vostok 2018, the drills were predictably criticised by NATO which organisation termed this as “rehearsal for large-scale conflict”. The Russian ministry of defence said that almost a third of its active military personnel took part in the week-long exercises in Siberia and the Russian Far East.
The week-long exercise, held from 11 to15 September 2018 was spread across five army training grounds, four airbases and three seas: the Sea of Japan, the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. Up to 80 naval vessels took part, from two Russian fleets. However, drills were not held near the disputed Kuril islands north of Japan. During the event, Russian army showcased its latest and lethal arsenal right from Iskander missiles that can carry nuclear warheads to T-80 and T-90 tanks and its next generation Su-34 and Su-35 fighters. At sea, the Russian fleet deployed several frigates equipped with Kalibr missiles that have been used in Syria. The main focus of the exercise was to practice the rapid deployment of thousands of troops, as well as aircraft and vehicles, from western Russia to eastern regions, across thousands of miles.
Russian Defence Ministry thereafter released images of columns of tanks, armoured vehicles and warships on the move and combat helicopters and fighter aircraft taking off. In one clip, marines from Russia’s Northern Fleet and a motorised Arctic Brigade were shown disembarking from a large landing ship on a shore opposite Alaska.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the war games after hosting an economic forum in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok where his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was one of the prominent guests. The Russian army compared this show of force to the USSR's 1981 war games that saw between 100,000 and 150,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers take part in Zapad-81 (West-81) -- the largest military exercises of the Soviet era. Sergey Shoygu, Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation said these exercises are even larger. “Imagine 36,000 military vehicles moving at the same time: tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles -- and all of this, of course, in conditions as close to a combat situation as possible.” Russia’s military exercises come at a time of escalating tensions between Moscow and the West over accusations of Russian interference in western affairs and conflicts in the Ukraine and Syria.
Nitin Konde