Nikolai Surkov
Izvestia, September 16, 2016, p. 1
Despite the official invitation of the Defense Ministry of Russia NATO refused to send its observers and representatives to any military exercises organized in Crimea.
BRUSSELS REFUSED TO SEND ITS REPRESENTATIVES TO ANY RUSSIAN EXERCISES ORGANIZED IN CRIMEA
Despite the official invitation of the Defense Ministry of Russia NATO refused to send its observers and representatives to any military exercises organized in Crimea.
The NATO headquarters explained in response to the previously sent question:
– Russia conducted Caucasus-2016 exercises in Crimea being a part of Ukraine. That is why NATO does not plan to send observers anymore. All NATO allies defend territorial integrity of Ukraine and keep calling on Russia to revert the illegal annexation of Crimea. We condemn the continuing big-scale buildup of the military might in Crimea.
A source in the military diplomatic circles reported that entire information about prepared exercises was provided to NATO countries but they sent a refusal without explanation of the reasons.
The source said:
– Caucasus-2016 exercises were the biggest since the moment of return of Crimea to Russia and representatives of NATO countries were invited to them but they did not accept this invitation. Moreover, we did not receive any understandable answer about the reasons of the refusal neither through military attaches or through other channels.
The source remarks that this situation puts the Defense Ministry of Russia into a difficult position because in response to a good will gesture and attempts to act in the maximal transparent way it encounters a disguised unwillingness to cooperate.
In June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia of embezzlement of clause 42 of the Vienna document on measures of confidence and security in Europe to conduct big exercises without notification of other participants of this agreement and thus “undermines transparency and predictability” of the military situation in Europe. This clause enables the states to notify the neighbors in case of unplanned checks according to the fact and not 42 weeks in advance required by the treaty for any exercises with participation of more than 9,000 servicemen or 250 tanks.
In response, the Defense Ministry promised to provide additional information to foreign military attaches about all sudden exercises, as well as to invite foreign military attaches and observers to them in a mandatory way. This initiative became a response of Moscow to critique on the part of NATO representatives who expressed concern about the growing quantity of sudden checks of combat readiness of the Russian Armed Forces and accused Russia of insufficient transparency of its military activity.
Strategic command staff exercises Caucasus-2016 took place under supervision of Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov since September 5 until September 10 on the territory of the Southern Military District. Overall, more than 120,000 servicemen participated in the exercises.
At a briefing dedicated to results of Caucasus-2016 exercises Gerasimov assured journalists:
– We know that some mass media have tried to somehow connect the scenario and actions of our troops with the allegedly existing plans of invasion into Ukraine. This does not correspond to reality at all. The exercises were preplanned and we reported about their organization last year.
Not a single representative of Western countries arrived to preplanned exercises Caucasus-2016 but there were observers from China, Vietnam, Mongolia, Venezuela, CIS countries and various African countries.
