Expert varnar: Risk för incidenter med Ryssland

Zapad 2017 (Russian: «Запад-2017», Belarusian: Захад-2017) is a planned joint strategic military exercise of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and Belarus (the Union State) scheduled for 14—20 September 2017, to be held in Belarus as well as in Russia′s Kaliningrad Oblast and other north-western areas. According to the information made public by the Defence Ministry of Belarus prior to the exercise, fewer than 13,000 personnel of the Union State are to take part in the military maneuvers, a number that does not trigger mandatory formal notification and invitation of observers under the OSCE′s Vienna Document. Western analysts, however, believed in July 2017 that the total number of Russian troops, security personnel and civilian officials to be involved in the broader war-games will range from 60,000 to 100,000, which would make them Russia′s largest since the Cold War. Since 2016, concerns have been voiced in a number of NATO countries over Russia′s suspected ulterior motives and objectives in connection with the exercise. In early September 2017, the Warsaw-based Centre for Eastern Studies judged Zapad 2017 to have become ″the core of an information war between Russia and NATO″.