Colonel-General Ivashev told why Moscow is conducting the Vostok-2022 exercises The strategic Command and Staff exercises "Vostok-2022" started, as planned, on September 1.
Even on the eve of their holding, Japan and many NATO countries, primarily the United States, showed nervousness. And the point here is not in the quantitative composition of the participants, the total number of which is more than 50 thousand military personnel, but in their international composition. "Newspaper.Ru" figured out what the Vostok-2022 exercises are, and why they are being conducted.
"We conveyed to the Russian side our concern about the activity of Russian troops near our country against the background of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The government continues to collect information and will act accordingly to the situation," Secretary General of the Government of Japan Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference in Tokyo.
Inviting the military from China and India to the exercises is a challenge that Russia has thrown to the United States. This was reported by Bloomberg with reference to a source in the Pentagon.
The Russian military leadership did not abandon the planned exercises "Vostok-2022" and began them at the appointed time, thus demonstrating that the special military operation in Ukraine is going on as usual, and combat training is on schedule.
About 50 thousand military personnel, more than 5 thousand units of weapons and military equipment, including 140 aircraft, 60 warships, boats and support vessels are involved in the exercises.
"If the army is not fighting, then it learns to fight - this is an axiom," he told the newspaper.En" retired Lieutenant General Anatoly Khrulev. - Military exercises of different levels have their own purpose and purpose.
Figuratively speaking, arrows are drawn on maps not of a company stronghold, but on the scale of an entire military district or strategic direction."
As follows from the statements of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the main task of the exercises is to "improve the skills of commanders and staffs in managing interspecific and coalition groups of troops in repelling aggression in the eastern direction and in the Far Eastern sea zone."
The exercises are also aimed at increasing the compatibility and level of interaction when solving joint tasks by coalition groups of troops to preserve peace, protect interests and ensure military security in the eastern region.
"The Vostok-2022 exercises show a reflection of the historical process of confrontation between the West and the East, in which Russia, as the middle world between them, is assigned a geostrategic regulatory function," he told the newspaper.En" historian, Colonel-General of the reserve Leonid Ivashov. - The purpose of such exercises is not to scare someone, but to show their allies that they have not been left isolated. To find options for joint cooperation with different countries, to prove that they are not satellites of some superpower, but partners who can ensure their own security and solve internal problems peacefully."
It is worth noting that, unlike the 2019 exercises, now Vostok-2022 has significantly expanded with the representation of the armies of foreign states. Among the participants are Algeria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria, Tajikistan. This is already a kind of coalition of forces that frankly does not stand on the side of Russia, but indicates a loyal position towards Moscow with its assistance in the exercises.
It is known that China is participating in the Vostok-2022 maneuvers with 2,000 military personnel, 300 units of ground combat equipment, 21 aircraft and a helicopter, as well as three ships have been sent. Similar numbers of participants from India and Belarus.
"In the context of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, this is a vivid demonstration that Putin does not consider Ukraine as a point of application of maximum military efforts. The Kremlin demonstrates to the West that the special operation does not bother him," he told the newspaper.Ru" military political scientist Alexander Zimovsky. - Simply put, it shows that Moscow is coping in this direction with the West collectively fighting against it in Ukraine without much effort.
Moscow thus unites its worst enemies."
In general, the Vostok-2022 maneuvers are a platform where each participant can show that he has foreign policy subjectivity, the political scientist notes. "This distinguishes us favorably from Washington, which has no allies, but vassals," Zimovsky believes.
Victor Sokirko
