The president attends the exercises in the Russian Far East and this Wednesday he will attend the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok
Vladimir Putin has taken a break from the bad news reaching him from the battlefield in Ukraine and has traveled thousands of miles to the Russian Far East to witness the Vostok-2022 military exercises (East.2022), in which, in addition to Russia, troops from China, India, Belarus, Syria and other countries participate. Russian military television channel Zvezdá has shown footage of Putin in the company of his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, smiling, wearing camouflage jackets and observing the exercises from the command post at the Sergeyevsky training camp. Next to them, more seriously, appears the chief of the High General Staff of the army, Valeri Gerasimov, engrossed in his notes.
As explained by Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, the military deployment of the maneuvers began on September 1, and extends over seven firing ranges in the far east of Russia and on the coasts of the seas of Japan and Okhotsk. The operation, which involved more than 50,000 troops, some 5,000 armored units, 140 aircraft and 60 ships, will end next Wednesday.
One of the peculiarities of these maneuvers is that countries that have complicated relations with each other participate. Such is the case with India and China, which have unresolved border disputes, or Russia and Kazakhstan, which are experiencing a difficult moment in their relations after Kazakh President Kasim Zhomart Tokáev described the separatist republics as “quasi-state territories” Ukrainian troops from Donetsk and Lugansk, militarily supported by Moscow since 2014. There are also troops from Azerbaijan and Armenia that have not yet reestablished relations after the war that pitted them against each other in the fall of 2020 for control of the Nagorno enclave of Karabakh.
However, these exercises were not the best. The previous Vostok exercises, held in September 2018, saw the participation of nearly 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 tanks, more than 1,000 aircraft and 80 warships. They were the most important since 1981, when NATO underlined that they constituted “the preparation of Russian forces for a large-scale conflict”.
In the midst of the Cold War, in 1981, the Soviet Union carried out unprecedented military maneuvers to intimidate White House newcomer Ronald Reagan and issue a serious warning to NATO. More than 40 years later, Putin is barely trying to bring Ukraine into line. One of the reasons why Russia has deployed fewer troops today than in 2018 is that it needs them in its neighboring country and has huge problems recruiting the necessary number of soldiers.
The US administration has expressed concern over India’s presence in joint military exercises with Russia, Reuters reported, citing White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who found it “worrying for Washington that, as Moscow continues to war against Ukraine, there are countries participating in Russian maneuvers. The truth is that, except for Belarus, none of the states involved in the Vostok-2022 exercises sent troops or war material to fight Ukraine. Not even Syria .
Putin’s visit to the Russian Far East continues on Wednesday in the port city of Vladivostok to participate in the Eastern Economic Forum, to which some 5,000 people have been invited. This conclave opened its doors on Monday and in its plenary session, alongside the Russian president, will be the head of the Chinese legislature, Li Zhanshu, number three in his country’s state hierarchy. Li is the senior Chinese Communist Party official to travel to Russia since the military intervention in Ukraine began on Feb. 24.
Beijing has avoided condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, opposes sanctions against Moscow and regrets sending Western weapons to Ukrainian troops. Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met in Beijing in early February, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Russian energy giant Gazprom said in a statement on Tuesday that “a transition has been put in place to make payments for Russian gas supplies to China in local currency, the ruble and the yuan”. According to the note, “the new payment mechanism is a mutually beneficial, timely, reliable and practical solution,” emphasizes the company’s president, Alexei Miller, who believes that “an additional impetus will be given to the development of our economies”. Within the framework of the Forum of Vladivostok, the Kremlin head will also meet with the head of the Burmese military junta, Min Aug Hlaing.
Source: La Verdad
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