…WHILE RUSSIAN TROOPS RATTLE ARMOR IN KALININGRAD REGION.

Lithuania’s offer to aid the nearby Kaliningrad region followed the Russian Baltic Fleet command’s announcement that it has food reserves for only forty days, and no funds to feed the troops afterward (see the Monitor, September 8 and 9). A large part of that fleet–and ground forces subordinated to it–are based in the Kaliningrad region. However destitute they may be, those forces celebrated on September 13 the Soviet-era Tank Troops’ Day with exercises simulating combat against Western forces. The Russian troops repulsed a “Western” amphibious assault (Russian TV, September 13).

BALTRON OUT TO SEA IN NATO-LED EXERCISE.