The exercises are scheduled to be executed on 20-26 September on several polygons of Belarus, in the Kaliningrad District and on the Baltic Sea. 12 thousand soldiers are going to participate in the exercises.
It is stated officially that the exercises are of planned and exclusively defensive character: soldiers are going to exercise how to defend the border, to maintain the state of emergency, searching and destroying the divertive groups and illegal armed groups, defending the anti-aircraft batteries and also important military objects. There will be also conducted exercises with subunits of rocket and artillery forces. The manoeuvres are performed near the border of the Baltic States. Some politicians stated that exercises have an offensive character, because the Russian military is practising a seizure of the Baltic States.
In early September, the NATO General Secretary, said that the Russian-Belarusian exercises are no threat for the NATO member countries. He also stressed, that the exercises should be transparent, as there will be observers from more than 60 countries.
In November this year, the "Steadfast Jazz" exercises will take place. It is joined military operation with Polish, Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian and NATO forces.
