Putin inspects military exercise that is making the West 'hot'

Russian President Vladimir Putin will oversee joint military exercises in the Leningrad region between Russia and Belarus called Zapad 2017, which are causing unease in the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik

RT news agency said that on September 15, the Kremlin confirmed that President Vladimir Putin will participate in inspecting the Zapad 2017 exercise.

“On September 18, the President will attend the Zapad 2017 strategic military exercises in the Leningrad region. We will inform you about the details of the visit,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Mr. Peskov also emphasized that President Putin's inspection trip was not related to the West's current concerns about the exercise.

“The president will monitor the strategic exercises on the training ground. This is a normal activity. This is the largest exercise. As commander-in-chief, President Putin always makes such visits to major exercises,” Mr. Peskov said.

Zapad 2017 began on September 14 and will last until September 20. The exercise involves about 12,700 troops, including 7,200 Belarusian and 5,500 Russian soldiers. However, the West believes the actual number could be larger.

In addition, the exercise also involved about 70 aircraft, 10 military vehicles, 680 infantry vehicles, including 250 tanks.

The forces will carry out a series of exercises at six different locations scattered across the territories of Russia and Belarus.

Russia asserted that the purpose of the exercise was anti-terrorism and purely for self-defense purposes, not aimed at any other country.

Meanwhile, NATO has always expressed concerns about the scale of the exercise, moreover, the location of the Zapad 2017 exercise is in Central Europe, close to NATO member countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of deploying military forces to participate in Zapad to prepare for war to invade Ukrainian territory.

For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week asked Russia to comply with international regulations on inviting observers to attend large-scale military exercises./.

According to Dan Tri