Svenska Dagbladet: Kremlin to test NATO eastern flank during Belarus-Russia war game West-2017

The joint Russian-Belarusian exercise West-2017 may become the beginning of Moscow’s military operation against NATO.

In particular, the so-called Suwalki corridor may be attacked, Svenska Dagbladet reports.

West-2017 will be held on September 14-20 – two Russian divisions of about 30,000 soldiers will be deployed to Belarus. In addition, Russia has recently stepped up its forces in the Western Military District and Kaliningrad, the Swedish newspaper stresses.

“Having creating such a military power, Russia may use the war game as a pretext to start limited or more provocative military hybrid operations and test the eastern flank of NATO,” warn Polish Colonel Tomasz Kowalik and Dominik Jankowski, a representative of Poland’s Foreign Ministry.

According to Svenska Dagbladet. In case of Russia’s occupying the Suwalki gap, this Achilles’ heel of Europe, the road to the Baltic States will be closed to NATO.

The authors recall that Russia’s aggression against Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014 began just after large-scale military exercises.

belsat.eu; following Svenska Dagbladet

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