MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/. NATO's military exercises in Sweden and Finland indicate systematic preparations for offensive actions on the Russian track, Alexander Stepanov, a military expert, program director of the Academy of Political Sciences, has told TASS.
"The intensification of NATO military exercises in Russia's northwestern border region testifies to preparations of the military infrastructure and work on scenarios of further escalation. In Finland the other day two tactical flight drills - Pristine Flank and Ilmataktiikka - were completed. The former were annual maneuvers of military transport aviation. The latter were the final stage of testing tactics of using fighter jets," said Stepanov, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The expert specified that about 1,000 servicemen from three countries - Finland, the United States and Sweden - took part in the maneuvers. He believes that "the creation of a regional North-European proxy alliance under the aegis of the Pentagon and a new fist for a strike in the Russian direction is in sight." The expert also added that the scenario of the exercise was offensive in nature: air combat, the spotting and elimination of air defenses, support for special aircraft involved in airdrop operations, reconnaissance and tactical target setting.
"The above steps convincingly indicate not just a public demonstration of some kind of political intentions by the new North European members of NATO, but rather unequivocally show step-by-step and systematic preparations for offensive actions in the Russian direction. On the daily basis, facilities are being equipped and upgraded, new training grounds are being created, engineering defensive structures are being erected, and fortified strongholds are being established. But the most important thing is the cohesion of units, the creation of a unified information network and the testing of various types of tactical offensive actions," Stepanov concluded.
On February 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the reestablishment of the Moscow and Leningrad military districts. The then Russian defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, explained that such a decision was made because of the threats associated with NATO's eastward expansion and the creation of new military infrastructure of the alliance near Russia's borders. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the country would deploy additional weapons in response to the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.