Putin: Russian-Belarusian exercises will be held in a new way in 2021
New approaches will be tested at Russian-Belarusian military exercises in 2021.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this today at an extended meeting of the board of the Ministry of Defense, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“During the upcoming Zapad-2021 exercise, new approaches to the use of the regional grouping of the Union State should be developed,” Putin said.
At the same time, he emphasized that Russia would not object to the presence of Western observers at these exercises.
“Already, some of our neighbors are showing increased interest in what and how we plan to do there. But we traditionally invite observers, Sergei Kuzhugetovich, we need to invite this time too, let them watch, everything is open in this sense,” Putin said.
Earlier, reserve colonel Vladimir Trukhan, a member of the working group on the creation of a Russian regional grouping of troops (forces) in Belarus, stated that President Alexander Lukashenko, during the Zapad-2017 exercises, conveyed information regarding Russia’s defense capability to NATO representatives.
Western experts wrote that the Zapad-2017 exercises became a turning point in military cooperation between Russia and Belarus, because Lukashenko insisted on reducing the number of Russian participants and invited 5 observers from NATO.
Last year, the Russian-Belarusian military exercise “Union Shield 2019” took place at the training ground of the Western Military District in Russia, “so as not to aggravate the situation in Europe.”
This year, at the request of Lukashenko, the joint exercises “Slavic Brotherhood” were continued and took place in two stages. In addition, the Belarusian president asked Russia to provide his country with new types of weapons.
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