Nicholas J. Myers
Security, Eurasia
Is Russia’s military as good, or as bad, as they say?
The conclusion of the large-scale Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2017 military exercise allows some initial reflections. Though the Zapad exercise series is a regular feature of the Russian strategic-operational exercise family, this is its first installment since the 2014 Ukraine crisis and the ensuing standoff between Russia and the West, explaining much of the interest in this year’s event.
Throughout the buildup to the exercise, the Russians and Belarusians have been insistent that it is purely defensive exercise; “Zapad” may literally translate to “West,” but the west in mind was …read more
Source: The National Interest
