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Russian military exercises gaze toward Poland
https://www.msn.com Jamestown Foundation ^ | 8.10.2021 | Janusz Bugajsk

Posted on 08/10/2021 7:55:24 AM PDT by RomanSoldier19

Russia is preparing its quadrennial Zapad 2021 military exercises along NATO’s eastern borders. The exercise is focused on potential armed conflicts with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

This extensive military drill in September will also involve troops from Belarus, one of Russia’s few remaining partners. Zapad 2021 is intended to demonstrate Russia’s military readiness and to simulate a clash with a neighboring state in which Moscow prevails. But with this year's exercises being conducted in the midst of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the social turmoil in Belarus, tensions are increased. Especially notable is the impact on the historic rivalry between Poland and Russia over the states that lie between them.

Kremlin propaganda depicts Poland, the largest and militarily strongest state on NATO’s eastern flank, as promoting pro-Western coups in Ukraine and Belarus that are intended to tear these countries away from "Mother Russia." In reality, the region is not witnessing a contest between two imperial projects but a struggle between two strategic concepts. That is to say the concept of a centralized Russian dominion that subordinates neighbors and that of a voluntary, multinational confederation embodied in the trans-Atlantic alliance and the European Union.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baltics; poland; russia
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To: pierrem15

That is a good distinction.


21 posted on 08/10/2021 9:48:36 AM PDT by aynrandfreak (Being a Democrat means never having to say you're sorry)
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To: pierrem15
How many well-trained and equipped units do you think Russia has?

That is an excellent point! However, we would not be able to GET to Lithuania, or Poland, if Russia sinks a few transports in the Baltic.

The Poles might be able to stop things.
22 posted on 08/10/2021 9:54:45 AM PDT by redgolum (If this is civilization, I will be the barbarian. )
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To: BobL; DesertRhino

The warmongers and defense contractors desperately want perpetual war. I suppose what is going on in other parts of the world is interesting, but I am concerned with the ongoing destruction of our own country. The US just got chased out of Afghanistan by a bunch of goat herders, and yet some want to confront Russia and China? What a joke.


23 posted on 08/10/2021 10:25:32 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX (You know you're old when all your dates are with doctors. )
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To: redgolum

We actually just practiced offloading units in Rotterdam (I think) or somewhere on the Atlantic coast last year and transporting them by rail to Grafenwoehr and then to Poland. The Germans were complaining about roads blocked for miles as US armor moved East.


24 posted on 08/10/2021 10:50:59 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: Pining_4_TX

I fine your geo-political take, less than average.

1. We degraded the Taliban severely at the height of the Afghan War. Nobody, unless they are willing to bomb thousands of villages with civillians, will beat Taliban. Our only mistake, and it was a big one, was not leaving after 6 months. Bush was an idiot.

2. We don’t have to confront Russia or China (another story completely). All we have to do is provide a serious deterrent. Russia is the joke and will only advance when they see a defenseless victim.

3. Perpetual War theory is fantasy. If anybody wants a perpetual war, it is Russia. Except they are not willing to confront a serious military, only move a few pawns against defenseless pawns.


25 posted on 08/10/2021 10:56:24 AM PDT by rbmillerjr
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To: rbmillerjr

And if the Taliban’s power was curtailed, so what? What did it accomplish? What did it cost us? And now, Afghanistan is back to the way it was. The US also ends up with many more Muslims here thanks to Bush/Cheney wars. The only reason we had 9/11 was because we let them in.

Deter Russia from what? Most of Europe is committing suicide by mass immigration. Russia is the least of their problems.

The perpetual war crowd is the military industrial complex. War is quite profitable.

There won’t be any large scale wars between nuclear powers. No more tank battles on the plains in Europe. We will fight stupid proxy wars in defenseless, dirt-bag countries for no good cause.


26 posted on 08/10/2021 11:07:51 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX (You know you're old when all your dates are with doctors. )
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To: rbmillerjr
What a bunch of garbage. Putin is fine. He has excellent popular support and continues to move Russia forward.

The idea of Russia invading Poland, or Lithuania, or anywhere else in Prebaltika is absolutely absurd.

All of the instances you mentioned were as a result of either physical or geopolitical aggression against Russia. Georgia was invaded after Georgian soldiers fired on Russian soldiers in Ossetia. Crimea was annexed after the US instigated the Maidan coup and the Ukrainian coup government threatened to revoke the long term lease on Sevastopol (and this only happened after an election that showed overwhelming popular support). Donetsk and Luhansk seceded from Ukraine also as a result of the Maidan coup.

Russia was not the aggressor in any of these cases, but somehow gets the blame for responding in a proportionate and measured manner. It doesn't manner that the collective West does not like the response...what matters is that Russia unabashedly defends its interests. Full stop.

27 posted on 08/10/2021 11:14:45 AM PDT by billakay
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To: MercyFlush

What we are faced with is the US/NATO exploiting these former Soviet states in order to threaten Russia.


28 posted on 08/10/2021 11:15:34 AM PDT by billakay
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To: DesertRhino

Agree 100% with this. According to NATO doctrine (drivel) Russia is not permitted to defend itself from aggression in any way, so the very idea of exercises intended to ensure military readiness is therefore repugnant.


29 posted on 08/10/2021 11:17:25 AM PDT by billakay
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To: aynrandfreak

Add this to the list of things that no one would ever actually attempt, because they are so ****ing retarded.


30 posted on 08/10/2021 11:18:34 AM PDT by billakay
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To: BobL

“I think a lot of people don’t mind being played by the Russia-hating media“

A lot fewer than there used to be. Hatred of Russia (as opposed to the USSR) is a blood feud that has nothing to do with us.


31 posted on 08/10/2021 11:20:34 AM PDT by Jim Noble (The nation cannot be saved until the GOP is destroyed)
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To: dfwgator

Part of me would love to see Ukraine absorbed into Russia, just to teach them and the rest of the world a lesson about mindlessly acting as a tool of the collective West and the military industrial complex, but, alas, the sheer amount of money that would be required to get the entirety of Ukraine up to Russian standards just in terms of physical infrastructure would be so massive as to be absolutely unimaginable.


32 posted on 08/10/2021 11:21:30 AM PDT by billakay
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To: RomanSoldier19

“ embodied in the trans-Atlantic alliance and the European Union”

In other words, an Orthodox Christian superpower or another satellite of globohomo usury and perversion.


33 posted on 08/10/2021 11:23:04 AM PDT by Jim Noble (The nation cannot be saved until the GOP is destroyed)
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To: RomanSoldier19

Russia would need to finish it’s conquest of Ukraine before trying to conquer Poland.


34 posted on 08/10/2021 11:23:18 AM PDT by Intar
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To: dfwgator

“ They would move into Western Ukraine.”

No they wouldn’t, but partition of Ukraine along the old Austria/Russia border is inevitable.

Poland can get in the game and restore Kresy, or can get run over.


35 posted on 08/10/2021 11:25:33 AM PDT by Jim Noble (The nation cannot be saved until the GOP is destroyed)
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To: Pining_4_TX

“ I am concerned with the ongoing destruction of our own country.”

A+

Our war is here. We have fought enough wars for alien peoples.

Never again.


36 posted on 08/10/2021 11:28:21 AM PDT by Jim Noble (The nation cannot be saved until the GOP is destroyed)
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To: DesertRhino

The Fulda Gap had teams of designated teams of Special Forces augmented by 11th ACR or APC engineers who had the very specific mission to go to a specific bridge and blow up it; it was a one way mission and everyone on the mission knew they die as soon as the bridge was blown (along with everything else). Radioactive fallout was another key aspect because any Russian or WARSAW Pact soldiers moving thru the area would have become sick, incapacitated, and dead within 24-96 hours.

In-ground nuclear tripwires are on numerous DMZ’s in areas critical to national survival for nations with the capabillity or US friendship.

Tactical nukes fired from artillery is an option to nuke a grid square, so to speak keeping it local.

Neutron Bombs, said to have been developed by the Russians, are clean kill weapon - meaning that the radiation passes thru the area and all the buildings, but in 4-6 weeks it can be reoccupied by troops short term without everyone dying from radiation.

I am all for Neutron and Tactial nukes allowing conventional forces to stalemate along areas without involving the civilian populations of the warring superpowers.

Once a nation’s leadership is cutoff from communication with it’s military forces (blinded) the US doctrine is to surgically take out numerous targets without killing a billion Chinamen.... The Old Reg Guard will have no choice but to sue for peace on US terms, meaning like the old USSR, China herself will be dismantled into regional nations immediately recognized by the UN. The issue of Taiwan, the Dali Lama, etc., will by default have the Chinese leave. That China is 5K old and never forgets, for the next few lifetimes this peace will be imposed.


37 posted on 08/10/2021 11:31:06 AM PDT by Jumper
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To: pierrem15

Of course, I am all for the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its’ downfall is one of the great tragedies of European history.


38 posted on 08/10/2021 11:39:08 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DesertRhino

Long before Nato, Poland had centuries of wars and tense peace with Russia — including two invasions, a long occupation, and loss of territory in the 20th Century alone. Poland and her friends and allies have good and abundant cause to be suspicious of Russian intentions.


39 posted on 08/10/2021 11:44:33 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Pining_4_TX

“And if the Taliban’s power was curtailed, so what?”

Oh, so your memory eludes you. Do you recall the Twin Towers attack that killed 3,000.

We went into Afghanistan to hit both AQ and the Taliban for letting them train and operate their as a save haven.

The mistake was not going there and hitting them, but not leaving after 6 months. Perpetual war is a delusion. We had every justification for going there.


40 posted on 08/10/2021 11:45:03 AM PDT by rbmillerjr
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