March to the West
A Risky Game: Russia’s Troop Exercises
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Russia’s autumn manoeuvres, “Zapad-2021”, took place without any observers from NATO countries. This violation of the basic principles of military confidence building illustrates how overt the enmity between Russia and the West has become. The demonstration of modern weapons systems cannot hide the fact that Russia’s arms industry is having difficulty with the mass-production of modern combat robots and combat drones. By contrast, the manoeuvres’ size was impressive. As was the case with the “battle readiness review” and the deployment of troops to the border with Ukraine, the manoeuvres served to reassure Russians and to intimidate Europeans.
(Osteuropa 7/2021, pp. 9–13)