RT
July 5, 2014

Russia launches large scale naval drill in Black Sea same day as NATO

Some 20 warships, over 20 airplanes and helicopters, as well as the marines and coast artillery are taking part in the Black Sea Fleet exercise, Russian Defense Ministry reported. The war games launched the same day as NATO’s military drill in the area.

Starting from July 4, the scheduled training maneuvers are conducted in the whole of the Black Sea, the Ministry told journalists on Friday, adding the drill is being carried out according to international standards.

“The exercise plan involves performance of a number of combat training missions, including destruction of enemy naval forces at sea and organizing naval and coastal air defense,” the Ministry explained.

Under command of Admiral Aleksandr Vitko, the Russian military of the Black Sea Fleet will also exercise in the search, detection and destruction of imaginary enemy submarines.

Coordinated actions between naval forces, coastal units and aviation are being practiced within the maneuvers.

“Coastal troops and the marines will drill battling with tactical assault force, while airplanes of the fleet air will be engaged in air reconnaissance and targeting “enemy” ships,” the Defense Ministry said.

All units, warship and plane crews act in situations that are very close to real war actions, Itar Tass agency reported. “Senior officers improve decision-making skills in fast-changing environment, designed by the exercise scenario,” said the agency source.

As part of the training on July 4, five Moskit and Malakhit cruise missiles were launched, all of which reached their targets with direct hits, according to the data. SU-24 aircrafts attacked targets at sea.

On July 4 NATO’s annual Sea Breeze military drills kicked off in the Black Sea. Warships from several countries, including Turkey and the US participated in the exercise, which has been called a “direct threat” to Russia’s national security by a Russian military expert.

NATO’s naval war games in the western part of the Black Sea will be held through July 13.

In June, the Baltic Sea was the area for both NATO and Russian major military exercises.

NATO war games in Latvia happened amid high tension between the Alliance and Russia over the Ukrainian crisis, and was regarded as a sign of aggression by the latter. Russia then launched its Baltic drills in response to the joint NATO forces exercise.

Pentagon Deploys Aircraft Carrier to Persian Gulf in Case of Iraq Op

RT
June 15, 2014

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered that the USS aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush be moved to the Persian Gulf in case Washington decides to use military force in Iraq following the rise of attacks by an Al-Qaeda offshoot movement.

“The order will provide the Commander-in-Chief additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq,”the Pentagon said in a statement on Saturday.

The carrier USS George H.W. Bush will be accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun, the Petagon added. The Bush is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the largest warships in the world, according to the US Navy. The ships are powered by two nuclear reactors and can carry a crew of about 6,000 people.

Iraq has seen a surge of violence in recent weeks as radical Sunni militants of an Al-Qaeda offshoot, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), have been advancing and capturing cities in the north of Iraq. The militants have already captured the cities of Mosul and Tikrit, and earlier declared that their top objective was the capture of the capital Baghdad.

On Friday, President Barack Obama said the US may begin providing military assistance to the Iraqi government to battle the insurgents within days.

Obama noted that he discussed the crisis in Iraq with his National Security Council earlier in the day, and will soon reveal what action, if any, the US will take.

On Thursday, Obama said that if US interests become threatened, a response will be warranted.

“The basic principal obviously is that we, like all nations, are prepared to take military action whenever our national security is threatened,” he said.

A senior US official said earlier in the week that Iraq has privately indicated to the Obama administration that it would welcome airstrikes with either drones or manned aircraft that target Al-Qaeda offshoot militants, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to experts, the United States can take steps to decrease the violence and tensions in Iraq. However, they have to scale back Washington’s aggressive support for Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s exclusive government.

“The United States has to change its tactics, as do other Western nations, in militarily supporting the Maliki government and deepening the war situation as opposed to trying to move all parties towards a process of national reconciliation,” anti-war analyst Eugene Puryear of the ANSWER Coalition told RT.

Iraq saw one of its bloodiest days last Saturday, with a string of car bombings killing an estimated total of 60 people in Baghdad. A further 59 people were killed in the country’s north. Around 800 people were killed in sectarian violence in May alone.

RT
April 11, 2014

The satellite images released by NATO that allegedly show a current build-up of Russian troops near Ukrainian border were taken in August 2013 amid military drills, a source in the General Staff of the Russian Army has said.

NATO’s top military commander in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, on Wednesday claimed that there is evidence of what he says are 40,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, tweeting a link to satellite images.

The images, some of them colored and some black and white, appear to show multiple Russian tanks, helicopters, fighter jets and a “special forces brigade” with locations and dates added to them. The dates marked range from March 22 to March 27, 2014. Another image not available on the original webpage but used by some Western media has “April 2, 2014” stamped on it.

Upon looking at the photos, a senior official at the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces has confirmed to RIA Novosti the troops shown are indeed Russian ones and that they were photographed in the south of Russia.

There is one problem, though: the images were taken some eight months before the stated date, the source said.

“These shots, which were distributed by NATO, show Russian Armed Forces units of the Southern Military District, which in the summer of last year were taking part in various drills, including near the Ukrainian border,” the General Staff official told RIA Novosti.

Large military drills held in the south of Russia last year included Combat Commonwealth 2013 – a joint air defense exercise of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Back then, Ukrainian troops participated in the international drills.

NATO on Thursday continued ramping up allegations of possible “Russian invasion” into Ukraine, with NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen claiming that 40,000 Russian troops are still amassed on the Ukrainian border “not training but ready for combat.”

Rasmussen’s “message to Russia” was then “to stop blaming others for your own actions, to stop massing your troops, to stop escalating this crisis and start engaging in a genuine dialogue.”

Meanwhile, General Breedlove on Wednesday said that US troops may soon be deployed to Europe to“reassure” the NATO allies – a notion, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called a flagrant breach of the bloc’s international obligations.

The Ukrainian coup-imposed government has also stepped up its rhetoric on Russia’s military presence, even claiming there is “military activity on behalf of the Russian Federation… on the territory of Ukraine”in an invitation to the Netherlands via OSCE network.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich on Thursday responded to the allegations by stressing that “on the territory of Ukraine, there is no military activity conducted by Russia.”

“This has been confirmed by the group of inspectors from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Austria and Sweden, who were in Ukraine from March 20 to April 2 and visited Kharkov, Donetsk, Mariupol, Nikolaev and Odessa regions,” Lukashevich stated.

Suggesting the territory mentioned in the diplomatic note might have been that of the Crimean Republic, the spokesman said the related activity there has to do with transferring of the ships and military hardware to Ukraine, as well as with the “inventorying of the military installations.” As soon as this process is finished, the international inspectors are welcome to the territory of the peninsula – provided they send a request to Moscow, not to Kiev, he stressed.

Putin: Deploying military force is last resort, but we reserve right
Published time: March 04, 2014 10:49
Edited time: March 04, 2014 11:32
http://rt.com/news/putin-statement-ukraine-russia-743/

Russian President Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Alexey Nokolskiy)
There was an unconstitutional coup and an armed takeover of power in Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated. Russia is puzzled why there was a need for it at a time when Viktor Yanukovich had conceded to all opposition demands.
The assessment was voiced at a media conference in Moscow.
Putin stressed that the Ukrainian people had a legitimate reason to protest against Yanukovich’s power, considering the overwhelming corruption and other faults of his presidency.
But he objected to the illegitimate way his ouster took place, because it undermined the political stability in the country.
He said that while he personally was not fond of months-long streets protests as a means to pressure the government, he sympathized with the Maidan demonstration members, who were genuinely outraged with the situation in Ukraine.
But at the same time he warned that what happens in Ukraine now may be a replacement of one group of crooks with another, citing the appointments of certain wealthy businessmen with questionable reputations.
Yanukovich is certainly powerless in Ukraine, but legally speaking he is the legitimate president of the country, Putin said. The way the new authorities in Kiev replaced him did not enhance their credibility.
Putin, who was given a mandate by the Russian senate to use military force to protect civilians in Ukraine, said there is no need for such an action yet.
He assured that the surprise military drills in Russia’s west which ended on Tuesday had nothing to do with the Ukrainian situation.
Putin cited the actions of radical activists in Ukraine, including the chaining of an official to a stage as public humiliation and the killing of a technician during an opposition siege of a parliamentary building, as justification for Russia to be concerned for the lives and well-being of people in eastern and southern Ukraine.
(Reuters / David Mdzinarishvili)
Incidents like those are why Russia reserves the option of troop deployment on the table.
The Russian president stressed that Russia wants to see equal participation of all citizens of Ukraine in defining the future of the country. The resistance to the authorities in Kiev, which is evident currently in the eastern and southern Ukraine, shows clearly that currently Kiev does not have a nationwide mandate to govern the country.
Asked about criticism of Russia over its stance on Ukraine, Putin dismissed the accusations that Russia is acting illegitimately. He stated that even if Russia does use force in Ukraine, it would not violate international law.
At the same time he accused the United States and its allies of having no regard to legitimacy, when they use military force in pursuit of their own national interests. He cited the campaigns in Iraq and in Libya as examples of such behavior.
As for the sanctions Russia faces over Ukraine, Putin said those threatening them should think of the consequences to themselves if they follow that path. In an interconnected world a country may hurt another country if it wishes, but it would be damaged too.
Threats are counterproductive in this situation, Putin warned. He added that if G8 members choose not to go to Sochi for a planned G8 summit, that would be up to them.
Putin dismissed the notion that the uniformed armed people without insignia who are currently present in Crimea are Russian soldiers. He said they are members of the Crimean self-defense forces and that they are no better equipped and trained than some radical fighters who took part in the ousting of Yanukovich.
Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych arrives for his press-conference in southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, on February 28, 2014. (AFP Photo / Andrey Kronberg)
Russia is not planning to go to war with the Ukrainian people, Putin stressed, when a journalist asked if he was afraid of war. But Russian troops would prevent any attempts to target Ukrainian civilians, should they be deployed.
Asked about the presence of snipers during the violent confrontation in Kiev last month, Putin said he was not aware of any order from the Yanukovich government to use firearms against the protesters. He alleged that the shooters could have been provocateurs from one of the opposition forces. He added that what he was sure of is the fact that police officers were shot at with lethal arms during the confrontation.
Putin does not see any political future for Yanukovich, which he told the ousted Ukrainian president himself. He added that Russia allowed him to come to its territory for humanitarian reasons, because if he remained in Ukraine he could have been summarily executed.
Russia will be watching the planned presidential election in Ukraine, Putin said. If it is conducted in an atmosphere of terror, Russia will consider it unfair and will not recognize its results, he warned.
The Russian government is currently engaging with the self-proclaimed govern of Ukraine with the goal of preserving economic ties between the two countries. However, any normal relations would only be possible after Ukraine has fully legitimate branches of government, Putin said. He considers that he has no counterpart in Kiev now, so he personally has no partner to communicate with.
Putin commented on the issue of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which Russia committed to preserve. He said that Western powers reject Russia’s assessment of the events in Ukraine as a coup and insist on calling it a revolution.
Some Russian experts, Putin warned that if Ukraine had undergone a revolution, then the nation that came out of it is not the same that it was before, similarly to how Russia transformed after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
If this is the case, Moscow may consider itself no longer bound by any treaties it has with Ukraine, Putin warned.
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RT

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent military drill to test the combat readiness of the armed forces across western and central Russia. The drill included troops dealing with mock security and terrorist threats.

The surprise drill tested ground troops, Air Force, airborne troops and aerospace defense, according to Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu.

Putin ordered to “test combat readiness of troops in dealing with crisis situations that threaten the military security of the country, as well as with antiterrorist, sanitary and epidemiological, or technogenic situations,” Shoigu said.

According to the Defense Minister, the drill, which started at 14:00 GMT, will be held from February 26 until March 3 in two stages. The second stage involves an opposing-force exercise with the participation of Russia’s Northern and Baltic fleet and bomb strike drills.

While Western media was quick to connect the drill to the situation in Ukraine, such exercises were proposed by Putin as early as last September and followed massive 2013 drills.

Full story here.