Putin risks fresh Nato rift as Russian army announces plans for THOUSANDS of summer drills
RUSSIA’S military has announced plans for more than 2,000 air, sea and land exercises over the summer, in an attempt to discourage Nato from further build-ups of troops in eastern Europe.
By TOM BATCHELOR
Express.co.uk
Thu, Jun 2, 2016
The programme includes dozens of large-scale manoeuvres and anti-terror drills, at a time when Nato is also carrying out its own exercises in eastern Europe.
Russia’s defence minister said the drills would be carried out from now until the end of October, with nine of them involving partnerships with foreign countries including Belarus and Mongolia.
Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said the training period would be “intensive”.
The largest exercise will be carried out in September in south-west Russia, although the number of troops involved has yet to be announced.
Russia’s involvement in the Syria conflict has given its armed forces valuable experience in real-life combat.
Mr Shoigu said: “The experience of operation of aircraft systems and anti-aircraft missile systems gained during combat in Syria is widely used in the training process.”
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