This is a special SITREP consisting of several articles linked together. A 7000 man joint NATO exercise in Poland and Latvia has irked Russia because it’s happening in former Russian client states. Exercise “Steadfast Jazz” tests how the Western alliance could deploy rapid reaction forces to its eastern flank an area that has had a couple of Russian exercises this year.
Consider this…
-The Russians conducted exercises consisting of 160,000 troops off of Japan in July 2013.
-The Russians conducted exercise consisting of 7,000 troops near the Ukraine and Georgia in Mar 2013.
-The Russians conducted more exercises with Belarus in the same region with 22,000 troops in Sep. The exercise included simulated nuclear strikes on Poland.
-Finally last month the Soviets conducted an exercise where four ICBM’s were launched as a simulated attack while simultaneously conducting anti ballistic missile exercises on separate missile launches.
Russian concerns? “The lady doth protest too much…”