On the Nature of Things | Forum

Pentagon intelligence agencies are closely watching Russian and Chinese war games now taking place in Europe and Asia involving tens of thousands of troops.

Meanwhile, NATO military forces are set to conduct large-scale maneuvers in November that will be designed to counter growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment, according to U.S. officials.

“The Russians are moving forces closer to Europe, and that is troubling,” said a military official.

Russia’s Zapad-13 military exercises in Belarus are scheduled to end Thursday. They included practice attacks on a western state, said one official familiar with reports of the maneuvers.

Some 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops took part with over 60 aircraft and helicopters and up to 250 vehicles.

The forces practiced “rapid reaction” drills.

Russian officials recently denied Polish press reports that the Zapad-13 would include a notional nuclear attack on Warsaw. However, Russian officials have said the war games will involve practicing precision air and missile strikes.

On the Russian air base, Russian air force chief Lt. Gen. Vladimir Bondarev announced in June that the air base for Su-27 jets in Belarus would be opened near the city of Lida, near the border with Poland and Lithuania.

Bondarev said the warplanes would bolster a 1997 defense agreement between the two countries in response to NATO expansion.

It will be Russia’s first military base in Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and along with it the Warsaw Pact, in 1991. Moscow currently has military bases in Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has moved away from democracy and shifted the former Soviet republic away from Europe and toward Russia, restoring many symbols from Soviet Belarus.

Meanwhile, NATO military forces are set to conduct large-scale maneuvers in November that will be designed to counter growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment, according to U.S. officials.

YMix wrote:USA holding war games... pretty much wherever it feels like it: <sound of mouse peeing on cotton>

Russia holds a war game in the backwater agrarian sh!thole of Belarus: OMG OBAMA IS DESTROYING THE USA THE GLOBAL AXIS OF POWER IS SHIFTING!

Meanwhile, NATO military forces are set to conduct large-scale maneuvers in November that will be designed to counter growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment, according to U.S. officials.

Moldova is about to sign the Association Agreement with the EU. Ukraine is considering the same course of action. Where exactly is the western encroachment? Is this one of those "Russia is doing something! Give the Pentagon more money!" articles? Welcome to Disingenuous US Media (an Absolutely No Responsibility Company)!

Mr. Perfect wrote:I didn't know you were this naive.

“The Russians are moving forces closer to Europe, and that is troubling,” said a military official.

YMix wrote:It would help if the OP was worth sh!t. What forces? Where? If a war game in Belarus is all that the "military official" has to show for it...

en·croach (µn-kr½ch“) intr.v. en·croached, en·croach·ing, en·croach·es. 1. To take another's possessions or rights gradually or stealthily: encroach on a neighbor's land. 2. To advance beyond proper or former limits: desert encroaching upon grassland.

Any western possessions or rights recently lost to the Russians or in imminent danger of being lost? Are Russian forces moving beyond the regions already under Russian control or friendly to them?

Typhoon wrote: As much as Putin would like to re-establish a neo Soviet [Forced] Union, behind a new Iron Curtain, I would not bet any money on it happening.

Aside from vodka, I don't recall the last time that I bought something labelled "Made in Russia".

The rise of Russophilia in the US, especially among factions that once believed that Godless pinko commies were hiding under every bed, is nothing if not amusing.

Mr. Perfect wrote:Ymix, I understand that being an Obama apologist must be very hard these days, but it doesn't help to move goalposts around, I'm not sure that your definition of encroachment really bears on the issue of whether or not the Russia-China axis is rising whilst the Obama led America wuss Europe axis is plummeting. This action plus the actions in the UN viz Russia/Syria are both just the natural result of a change in the power structure. And it will continue.

growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment

Typhoon wrote:As much as Putin would like to re-establish a neo Soviet [Forced] Union, behind a new Iron Curtain, I would not bet any money on it happening.

YMix wrote:

Mr. Perfect wrote:Ymix, I understand that being an Obama apologist must be very hard these days, but it doesn't help to move goalposts around, I'm not sure that your definition of encroachment really bears on the issue of whether or not the Russia-China axis is rising whilst the Obama led America wuss Europe axis is plummeting. This action plus the actions in the UN viz Russia/Syria are both just the natural result of a change in the power structure. And it will continue.

There aren't any goalposts to move. You posted a dumb article, one that's light on facts and heavy on insinuation. And that isn't my definition of encroachment because I copied it from the American Heritage Dictionary. If you have a better one, let's see it. Although what the article actually says is:

growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment

I have growing concerns about the quality of the media products you consume, Mr. Perfect.

YMix wrote: There aren't any goalposts to move. You posted a dumb article, one that's light on facts and heavy on insinuation.

And that isn't my definition of encroachment because I copied it from the American Heritage Dictionary. If you have a better one, let's see it. Although what the article actually says is:

I have growing concerns about the quality of the media products you consume, Mr. Perfect.

Heracleum Persicum wrote:.

Now, America more socialist than Russia or even Iran (Hi, Mr. Perfect)
.

Mr. Perfect wrote:Welcome to realpolitic. You are however rather late on the learning curve.

Demon of Undoing wrote:For the record, the porky Russian lady hasn't been up for four days, has not been immersed in 55 degree seawater for 6 hours at a time, done head first pushups in the breakers, rolled in the sand and had 400 lb inflatable rubber boats fall on her.

Just sayin'.

Demon of Undoing wrote:For the record, the porky Russian lady hasn't been up for four days, has not been immersed in 55 degree seawater for 6 hours at a time, done head first pushups in the breakers, rolled in the sand and had 400 lb inflatable rubber boats fall on her.

Just sayin'.

Mr. Perfect wrote:Some people are really fighting the last wars. All new rules now.

Mr. Perfect wrote:

Heracleum Persicum wrote:.

Now, America more socialist than Russia or even Iran (Hi, Mr. Perfect)
.

When you're right you're right Azari.

Demon of Undoing wrote:For the record, the porky Russian lady hasn't been up for four days, has not been immersed in 55 degree seawater for 6 hours at a time, done head first pushups in the breakers, rolled in the sand and had 400 lb inflatable rubber boats fall on her.

Just sayin'.