OPINION:
NATO, worried about Russian actions in Ukraine an its aggressive military maneuvers worldwide, especially in the Baltic Sea, has been exercising large numbers of troops in former Soviet and Warsaw Pact territory to deter any Russian thoughts of westward expansion.
Russia has vowed to respond to NATO’s visible buildup with a shift in forces of its own. Russian Defense Minister Shoigu has restructured the footprint of Russia’s military with a new emphasis toward a troop buildup on its Western border.
This process is ongoing as men and material are shifted from Eastern garrisons toward NATO.
Shoigu created three new divisions to be stationed on the western border with Europe. One visible confirmation of this redeployment is in the Russian town of Klintsy, about 50 km from the Ukrainian border.
Several new military sites have been spotted near Ukraine which is still locked in a simmering conflict in the Donbass region with pro-Russian separatists who are supported by the Kremlin.
“What’s to hide? That they’ve come? They’ve arrived,” said council deputy chairman Oleg Kletny. “They’re going to be garrisoned here. It’s good that the military will come; our demographic situation will improve, we’ll get a bigger population. If servicemen come here with their families, that will be good too,” he told Reuters.
Council deputy chairman Kletny said the troops, from a motorized infantry division, started arriving on May 30. They came from a base in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural mountains region about 2,000 km to the east of Klintsy, reported Reuters.
Russia withdrew from Conventional Forces in Europe treaty and is free to move large numbers of units as it see necessary. The United States is in the process of returning armored assets to Europe which the Obama administration had fully withdrawn.
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