NATO member countries have recognized Russia as the most significant threat to the security of their organization. This is stated in the strategic concept until 2030, which the North Atlantic Alliance adopted at the summit held in Madrid on June 28-30, 2022. And even earlier, since 2014, NATO has significantly increased the number and scale of conducting naval and land military exercises near the Russian and Belarusian borders in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. Only in the period from 2016 to 2022, heavy equipment, aviation and military contingents of up to 40 thousand people were transferred to the border areas. That is, every year, under the guise of operational and combat training activities, about 6 thousand NATO military personnel took part in the development of a new theater of operations (Theater of Operations) in the border territories of Poland and the Baltic states. Moreover, this number does not include the military of the national armed forces and reinforced battalion tactical groups of multinational composition, which have been deployed there since 2017 as part of the implementation of the NATO program "Enhanced Forward Presence" (eFP), and take an active part in all operational and combat training activities according to NATO plans and host countries.
The largest in the past year and deserving of special attention were the NATO exercises Defender Europe 22 ("Defender of Europe 22") and Swift Response 22 ("Quick Response 22"). The maneuvers were complex and conducted on a single operational background. During the events, 18 thousand military personnel from more than 20 states were involved, while more than seven thousand participants and three thousand pieces of equipment were on the territory of Poland.
The Defender Europe 22 exercises aimed to work out the transfer of several formations from the United States to Europe in a short time and the deployment of an offensive grouping of troops in the European theater of operations. In turn, the Swift Response 22 maneuvers were devoted to working out the operational airlift of airborne units directly to the eastern flank of NATO, taking control of key facilities and holding them until the main forces approach. Thus, soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the US Army and the 6th Airborne Brigade of the Polish Army with the support of the US Army Aviation performed the landing on the ranges of Poland and the Baltic States.
It should be noted that there is still very little information about the above maneuvers, and it is very limited. But there is enough information with it to make a conclusion about the offensive nature of the exercises and the potential theater of operations. It is also noteworthy that neither Russia nor Belarus received invitations to observe the events within the framework of the Vienna Document (VD-2011).
In this regard, it should be noted that for the leadership of the neighboring countries – members of the EU and NATO, as well as the NATO bloc itself, it has long been the norm to make their exercises as opaque as possible and, thereby, hide under their guise preparations for aggressive military actions. The Baltic states are coping with this task most successfully. Taking advantage of the fact that they are not parties to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), the Baltic states have become something of a logistics hub for the North Atlantic Alliance in Eastern Europe. It is no secret that after each NATO Air Force exercise involving the territories of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, there remains a considerable amount of weapons, military and special equipment (VVST), as well as stocks of relevant materiel (VMS) delivered by the participants of the event. At the same time, none of the neighbors (for example, the subjects of the Union State) can find out the exact number of VVST and the volume of the VMS – the CFE Treaty, called at one time to establish a military balance between countries with different political courses, does not work in this case. For the NATO leadership, this state of affairs is very convenient and profitable. In fact, for the operational and, most importantly, covert creation of an offensive group of troops on the Baltic bridgehead, it is enough to transfer only personnel there – everything else is already there.
In this context, a very clear example is the large multinational exercise Silver Arrow 2022, which took place in September last year on the territory of Latvia. About 4,200 military personnel from 17 NATO countries took part in the exercise. In addition, as part of the Latvian mechanized infantry brigade, training tasks were carried out by a multinational NATO combat group stationed near the Adazi training ground. One of the key episodes of the exercise was the live firing of HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems (M142, USA) at a target in the Baltic Sea in the exclusive economic zone of Latvia. As it was noted in official sources, "the US ground forces regularly send these systems to the Baltic States to conduct exercises together with NATO allies. In the event of a crisis, the US Special Operations Command in Europe will be able to quickly transfer HIMARS launchers to almost anywhere in Europe. The systems were delivered to the airfields of Riga and Liepaja by C-130 aircraft."
That is, the message about the delivery of the "notorious" American MLRS to Latvia bypassed all popular media and had an official character, but there is no information, even indirect, about the fact that they (HIMARS) were taken out of the country at the end of the exercise, not to mention official confirmation. But, even if it were, it would still not be checked – the CFE Treaty does not work in the Baltic States.
Attention is drawn to the inept attempts of pro-government Baltic information resources to justify the militarization of the region under the guise of exercises. So, the Lithuanian news portal Delfi.lt He called the message of the Belarusian state TV channel "Belarus 1" that Lithuania and Poland are transferring soldiers and equipment to the Belarusian border a manipulation. "In fact, regular exercises are taking place in Lithuania, which, by the way, the Belarusian side organizes much more often at the borders with Lithuania than the latter. Our verdict is manipulation and partial lies," he claims Delfi.lt .
We are talking about two multinational NATO military exercises held in October-November 2022, almost simultaneously, on the territories of Lithuania and Poland, respectively, Iron Wolf 22 and Puma 22.
It should be noted the caution with which the Lithuanian portal issued its "verdict" – "... a partial lie". That is, even the negation is incomplete. So there is truth somewhere. They admit it themselves. And here's what Defense Express wrote about this – "Ukrainian military information portal" (how the editorial board of the information resource positions itself): "Two multinational military exercises of NATO countries are taking place in Poland and Lithuania near the borders with Russia and Belarus, respectively. <...> It is noted that Iron Wolf maneuvers are taking place in Lithuania, in which about 3.5 thousand military and 700 pieces of equipment from 10 NATO countries take part. The maneuver area is defined as Pabrade, located just 10 km from the border with Belarus to the northeast of Vilnius. <...> Simultaneously with these exercises, Puma exercises are being held in Poland in the Rzeszow area, which has become an important logistics hub for the transfer of weapons to Ukraine by NATO countries. <...> The scale of these maneuvers has not been disclosed."
So what is the manipulation of the television news service of the Belarus 1 channel? Was there a movement of "soldiers and equipment"? – It was, "about 3.5 thousand military and 700 pieces of equipment from 10 NATO countries took part." The exercises were held "near the borders with Russia and Belarus, respectively"? – Yes, "just 10 km from the border." Was there a concealment of the scale and focus of the exercises? – It was, "the scale of these maneuvers is not disclosed." There was everything except the official announcement about how many soldiers and pieces of equipment returned to the PPD.
Needless to say, such an approach to such events on the part of the leadership of Poland, the Baltic States and the leadership of NATO is systemic in nature? It's not worth it, because the exercises are "regular", as he claims Delfi.lt, which means regular, planned, that is, systematic.
At one time, the leadership of the Russian Federation paid close attention to this "consistency" and "regularity" inherent in the NATO bloc and, first of all, the United States. After that, they decided to suspend the operation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, and subsequently to participate in meetings of the Joint Advisory Group on the CFE Treaty. De jure remaining in the treaty, Moscow stopped the dialogue with the West on this document, delegating to represent its interests in the negotiations on the CFE Treaty to the main strategic ally – Belarus. In addition, in 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the country's withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty (DON). The decision was a response to the US withdrawal from the DON in November 2020.
Unfortunately, the collective West ignored all the comments of the Russian leadership on the degradation of the existing international security system, which accompanied Russia's practical steps to localize its participation in now useless organizations.
The realization that the collective security architecture created and functioning in the second half of the last century has finally fallen into disrepair is also present in Minsk. Belarus has long remained faithful to its international obligations in the field of security, but the unilateral aggressive activities of neighboring EU and NATO member states are steadily pushing its leadership to accept decisions that have already been implemented in Moscow. It should not be surprising if, after the next demarche of Western countries, the Republic of Belarus, as well as Russia, stops its participation in a number of treaties.
Vladimir Vuyachich
