Recently, NATO officials said that Minsk and Moscow did not comply with international agreements to ensure openness of the upcoming Russian-Belarusian exercise West-2017.
“We regret that neither Russia nor Belarus applied measures of the Vienna Document (OSCE Agreement on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures) to ensure transparency with regard to the“ West ”,” the France Presse quotes the Alliance official, whose name left overs.
A few hours after the comment was published, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed solidarity with the opinion of the subordinate, saying that the alliance was not allowed to fully attend the maneuvers. At the same time, the criticism sounded both to the Belarusian and Russian authorities: Minsk, according to Mr. Stoltenberg, invited an insufficient number of representatives, and Moscow restricted the time for the presence of observers, which, as the Secretary General noted, is a violation of the Vienna Treaty.
Understanding the situation, the statements of the leadership of the alliance on non-compliance with international requirements have nothing to do with the real state of affairs.
In accordance with the Vienna Document adopted at the OSCE plenary meeting in 2011, inspections are subject to maneuvers, the number of which exceeds 13 participants. In addition, the mandatory presence of observers involves exercises with a large number of military equipment: more than 000 tanks or over 500 armored combat vehicles. Training is also being inspected, involving more than 250 artillery pieces, mortars and multiple launch rocket systems.
It is noteworthy that the composition of the forces of assets within the framework of the “West-2017” does not go beyond the established boundaries of the OSCE for any of the criteria. Recall the number of participants in the Russian-Belarusian military verification will be 12 700 people and 680 units of military equipment, including 250 tanks and 200 guns. Summarizing, in accordance with the provision of the Vienna Document, Minsk and Moscow could confine themselves to informing (the teachings from the 9000 people are to be notified), refusing the constantly unhappy “partners” in the presence, which, as we know, was not done.
More than 80 observers have been invited to the maneuvers. Among them are representatives of international organizations of the United Nations, OSCE, NATO, CSTO, CIS, ICRC. The offer to visit “West – 2017” was sent to Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Norway.
According to information from open sources, observers from Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania have already confirmed their presence. At the same time, if Kiev sends its representatives only to the Belarusian testing grounds, the two Baltic states showed interest in the Russian stage of the exercise. So, from the Latvian side, the military attache of Latvia in Moscow will be watching the progress of the maneuvers in Russia. It is also known that Vilnius will send an inspector to the “Lugsky” testing ground in the Leningrad region.
Returning to Stoltenberg’s statement, even organizations supervised by the US military are beginning to be skeptical about the complaints and concerns of the alliance. An analyst article published by Stratfor (often referred to as the media by the “shadow CIA”) published on the eve notes that “West-2017” is a planned event with which the Kremlin only demonstrates its potential to the potential enemy.
Anyway, rejecting discontent of Stoltenberg, Poltorakov, Macherevich and other politicians, Russia and Belarus fulfilled their promises by inviting international observers to the maneuvers. Now the choice is behind the invited party: either come or not. Obviously, Minsk and Moscow will arrange both options ...