MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian military sought Tuesday to allay Western fears about major war games set for next month, describing them as regular drills that will not threaten anyone.
The Zapad (West) 2017 maneuvers organized jointly by Belarus and Russia have raised NATO concerns. Some alliance members, including the Baltic states and Poland, have criticized Moscow for a lack of transparency and questioned Moscow’s intentions.
Russia-West relations have been badly strained over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and continuing fighting in eastern Ukraine. Amid spiraling tensions, Western worries about the planned maneuvers have ranged from allegations that Russia could use the maneuvers to permanently deploy its forces to Belarus to fears of a surprise attack on the Baltics.
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister, Lt. Gen. Alexander Fomin, rejected what he described as Western “myths about the so-called Russian threat.”
“The most improbable scenarios have been floated,” he said at a briefing for foreign military attaches. “Some have reached as far as to claim that the Zapad 2017 exercises will serve as a ‘platform for invasion’ and ‘occupation’ of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.”