Russian Claims of ‘Biggest-Ever’ War Exercises Seen as Sending a Message

 

Russia is holding its biggest military exercise since the fall of the Soviet¹ Union.

The military exercise is being called “Vostok-2018” and includes forces from China and Mongolia. The war games continue in Russia’s Far East and eastern Siberia through September 17.

Russia and China have held joint² exercises before, but nothing of this size.

Before these exercises began, Russian Defense³ Minister Sergei Shoigu said they would be even larger than war games held in 1981. Those games involved between 100,000 and 150,000 soldiers from the Soviet Union and its allies⁴.

Vostok-2018 reportedly will involve 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 military vehicles, 1,000 airplanes and 80 warships⁵.

Chinese involvement in the exercises

China has sent only 3,200 soldiers and 900 weapons units, but its decision to take part is unprecedented⁶. Some observers believe it is a warning to the United States and Europe.

Alexander Gabuev is with the Carnegie Moscow Center. He said, "It sends a signal to Washington that if the U.S. continues on its current course by pressuring Russia… (it) will fall even more into the firm embrace of China.” Gabuev told the Associated Press that China's presence at the exercises means the two countries no longer see each other as military threats.

But other observers disagree. They question both the transparency of Vostok-2018 troop estimates and the political importance of China's presence.

Troop numbers for exercises like these are usually what we might call “true lies,” said Michael Kofman, a Russia and Eurasia security and defense expert at the Kennan Institute.

“(This) means that if a brigade sends one battalion⁷, then they count the whole brigade," he told VOA.

Kofman added that Russian officials usually announce different numbers after the military exercises have ended. In Vostok 2014, officials said they had 100,000 soldiers, but later changed that number to 155,000.

Different ways of counting troop numbers make it hard to know how many soldiers are actually a part of the exercises.

The West is watching

The United States and other NATO member countries say they are watching the situation.

The purpose of the nearly week-long war games is clear. Top NATO officials have called Vostok-2018 an "exercise in large-scale conflict."

The exercise “is really to test Russia’s ability to fight in a large worldwide conflict, and one that may involve nuclear weapons," Kofman told VOA. He said it also is an attempt to test the Russian military’s skill at moving quickly and seeing how civilian-military officials would react to a large-scale war.

While much of the West worries about the risk of conflict across Eastern Europe, the Russians appear to be most worried about China and the Far East.

Kofman notes the Far East is different from other parts of Russia because it is so far from infrastructure⁸ and large population centers. He added that Russia’s military there is almost designed to fight on its own, almost (like a) separate military, which is why is has so many ground-force formations.”

Although Russia and China have increased military-to-military contact in recent years, no one really thinks the two sides have formed a formal military alliance⁹.

"Russia has no chance of a formal military alliance with China, and not because Russia doesn't want it," said Aleksander Goltz, a Moscow-based military expert.

China has refused any military alliances¹⁰ or guarantees, he said, adding that the alliance for Vostok-2018 is limited and China set those limits.

Jeffrey Edmonds is a former Russia director for the U.S. National Security Council. He described Vostok-2018 as part of Russia's continuing efforts to modernize¹¹ its forces.

The actual “exercise itself is … standard Russian military activity," Edmonds said, He said that the high numbers of troops may be an attempt to go against the belief in a threat from the West.

I'm Susan Shand.

Words In This Story

unit – n. a thing, person or group that is part of something larger

unprecedented - adj. never been done before

course – n. pathway, direction

embrace – n. putting one’s arms around another person

transparency – n. openness

brigade – n. part of a military division

battalion – n. a very large part of the army

infrastructure – n. the equipment and structures needed necessary for something to operate correctly

scale – n. a series of ordering or rating something

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 allies   

联盟国，同盟者； 同盟国，同盟者( ally的名词复数 )； 支持者； 盟军

参考例句：

• The allies would fear that they were pawns in a superpower condominium. 这个联盟担心他们会成为超级大国共管的牺牲品。
• A number of the United States' allies had urged him not to take a hasty decision. 美国的一些盟友已力劝他不要急于作决定。

5 warships   

军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只

参考例句：

• The enemy warships were disengaged from the battle after suffering heavy casualties. 在遭受惨重伤亡后，敌舰退出了海战。
• The government fitted out warships and sailors for them. 政府给他们配备了战舰和水手。

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

7 battalion   

n.营；部队；大队(的人)

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned by a battalion.该镇由一营士兵驻守。
• At the end of the drill parade,the battalion fell out.操练之后，队伍解散了。

8 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

9 alliance   

n.同盟，同盟国，结盟，联姻

参考例句：

• China will not enter into alliance with any big power.中国不同任何大国结盟。
• The new alliance was very much in evidence.新的联盟上星期很引人注目。

10 alliances   

（国家、政党等的）结盟( alliance的名词复数 )； 同盟国； 结盟的社会； 联姻

参考例句：

• Our alliances will be sundered if they appear as obstacles to peace. 我们的同盟如果成为和平的障碍，就会瓦解。
• Inevitably this produced a challenge to our previous predominance in our alliances. 这不可避免地形成了对我们从前在联盟中的支配地位的挑战。

11 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。