"Preparation for war", "Mass mobilization at European borders", "Occupation of Eastern Europe and the Baltics". The largest European publications have been publishing such headlines for a month already. The reason for the hype is the planned defensive Belarusian-Russian doctrine West-2017. Such maneuvers are held once in two years starting from 2009. Minsk and Moscow do not see any reason to change this trend.
Nevertheless, the excitement around the West-2017 is excessive. Analysts believe that the media intentionally exaggerates the scope of the exercise in order to justify the growth of defense spending to European taxpayers. Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg had to calm down the European defense ministers personally.
A total of 12,700 troops from Russia and Belarus will take part in the West-2017 exercise. Moreover, a smaller contingent - about 10 200 people - will be involved in the exercises on the territory of our country: about 7 thousand Belarusians and 3 thousand Russians. For comparison, last year's exercise in Poland involved three times more military. In all, 85 maneuvers were planned by NATO this year. One third of them are at the borders of the Union State. The Ministry of Defense of Belarus emphasizes, that in the context of the tense situation in the region, the West-2017 will be conducted at remote ranges from the state border with the invitation of NATO observers and separately from neighboring countries.
