BELARUS IS ALLOTTED ANTI-NATO ROLE IN RUSSIAN MILITARY EXERCISE. “

Zapad [West]-99,” the largest strategic command-staff exercise conducted since 1985 by Soviet or Russian forces, is underway in western and northwestern Russia from June 21-26 under the overall command of Russia’s Defense Minister Igor Sergeev. The Belarusan military participates in the exercise under bilateral military plans and agreements, as part of the military dimension of the Russia-Belarus Union. The defense minister of Belarus, Aleksandr Chumakov, has joined Sergeev at the exercise central headquarters in the Moscow region. The exercise aims to practice coordination among Russia’s armed services and between Russian and Belarusan forces in repelling a NATO offensive.

The theater of operations centers on Russia’s northwest, the Kaliningrad region and Belarus. The scenario assumes growing political tensions somewhere in that general area–more specifically in the Baltic states, according to some reports–escalating to armed clashes and a “regional war.” NATO forces cut off Kaliningrad and penetrate into Russia and Belarus, whereupon Russian forces with Belarusan support counterattack “to defeat the aggressor and restore the territorial integrity of Russia and allied countries.” Belarus serves as a staging area for the Russian counteroffensive, also hosting the Russian campaign headquarters near Vitsyabsk [Vitebsk]. One of the main aims of the exercise is to test the ability of the Russian and Belarusan military to operate as a coalition, in accordance with the Russian planning concept of “regional groups of forces” (Nezavisimoe voennoe obozrenie, June 18-24; BNS, June 22; Itar-Tass, June 22-23).

UKRAINE TURNS TO KAZAKHSTAN FOR OIL SUPPLIES.