• Russia says it would match any U.S. military buildup in Eastern Europe - By Karoun Demirjian

Russia says it would match any U.S. military buildup in Eastern Europe
By Karoun Demirjian
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-would-match-any-us-military-buildup-in-eastern-europe/2015/06/15/7db91350-1361-11e5-8457-4b431bf7ed4c_story.html

Polish tanks participate in a military exercise in Swietoszow, western Poland, on June 13. (Lech Muszynski/European Pressphoto Agency)

MOSCOW — Russia would swiftly respond to any moves by the United States to build up military resources in Eastern Europe by fortifying its western border with more troops, tanks, planes and missile systems, a defense official told the Russian press Monday.

The Pentagon is considering plans to store heavy weaponry, tanks and other vehicles in the Baltics, U.S. officials said Saturday . If that happens, Russia would view the move as “the most aggressive step since the Cold War,” Russian army Gen. Yury Yakubov told the Russian news service Interfax.

Yakubov said Russian forces “along the entire perimeter of Russia’s western border will be reinforced” as soon as Russia notes the buildup of any American heavy military equipment in the Baltics or Eastern Europe.

U.S. officials said the proposal, if approved, would put extra weapons and vehicles in countries that might include Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

In that case, “Russia won’t have anything else to do but bolster its forces and resources on the western strategic theater of operations,” Yakubov said.

Plans to fortify military resources in Eastern Europe have yet to get the green light from Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, U.S. officials said.

Such an approval would be historic: The United States has not sent heavy weapons to the NATO states that were once Soviet republics since they gained independence at the close of the Cold War. The Baltics joined NATO in 2004, along with former Iron Curtain satellite states Romania and Bulgaria, while Poland and Hungary became member states in 1999.

Some of those governments have been urging NATO to build up its resources in the area in light of Russia’s recent annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian separatists fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine. While Russia has made no overt attempt to seize territory in a NATO member state, Poland and the Baltic states have argued that more deterrence is necessary and have called on NATO to focus its missile shield at Russia.

Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that officials had tried to position equipment closer to training sites in Europe for some time, meaning that equipment did not need to be moved long distances when training occurs.

“It just makes it more efficient; it saves taxpayer dollars,” Warren told reporters. He disputed the notion that a possible decision to place equipment or weaponry in Eastern European or the Baltic states was linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

“This is purely positioning of equipment to better facilitate our ability to conduct training,” Warren said.

NATO forces have also been stepping up military exercises in Eastern Europe and the Baltics in recent months, a period during which Russia has also staged more military exercises.

But NATO has not deployed permanent combat forces or stores of heavy equipment in Eastern Europe since it pledged not to in a 1997 agreement with Russia about collective defense and security. U.S. officials have also repeatedly said — most recently last month, when a top Ukrainian security official said Ukraine was interested in building missile defenses to protect against Russia — that the alliance’s most serious weapons systems are not focused against Russia.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera this month, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin said “only an insane person” would think Russia would attack NATO.

But it appears that Russia has at least basic plans in place to answer a potential buildup of NATO reinforcements.

Yakubov told Interfax that Russia would answer such a move by outfitting its missile brigade in the European region of Kaliningrad “with new Iskander tactical missile systems” and making changes to its defense interests in Belarus.

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Russia's Massive Military Buildup Abroad: Should NATO Worry?
Zachary Keck
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russias-massive-military-buildup-abroad-should-nato-worry-13132

As tensions between the United States and Russia continue to grow, Moscow is embarking on a massive military buildup in the country of Belarus.

Speaking to Russian media outlets on Wednesday, Belarusian Defense Minister Gen. Lt. Andrey Ravkov said that four Russian-built S-300 air defense systems would be sent to his country by the end of this year, and there were ongoing talks over Russia deploying its most advanced S-400 air defense systems.

"In the framework of creating a joint regional system of missile defense , four divisions and command post of S-300PS missile defense systems will enter service at military units of Air Force’s Anti-Aircraft Missile Troops and Air Defense Troops stationed in the Hrodna, Brest and Vitebsk Regions," Ravkov told TASS media agency.

He went on to say that Russia and Belarus are continuing to discuss arrangements for delivering the S-400 system, but that “it is yet premature to talk about concrete dates."

Ravkov also discussed Russia building an air force base in his country during the interview, stating “The timeframe and place of stationing a Russian aviation base on the territory of Belarus is currently in the political dimension of consideration."

He added: “It is too early to talk about transfer of Su-27 aircraft and Mi-8 helicopters from the Russian Federation. However, our defense ministry is ready to undertake all necessary measures to practically fulfill this."

In March 2014, Russia announced it was deploying 6 Sukhoi-27 fighter jets and three transport planes to Bobruisk airfield near Belarus’ border with Poland. The move came in response to NATO sending 12 F-16s to Poland following the Crimea crisis.

Also last year, Lt. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s Air Force, had said that Moscow will establish an air base in Belarus’ Babruysk in 2016. "The Russian Air Forces air base in Belarus will be created in 2016. Su-27 fighter jets will be based there," Bondarev said in October 2014.

In a meeting with Ravkov last December, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia was increasing the number of aircraft it initially will deploy to the new air base when it is complete.

In October, Defense Minister Shoigu promised that Russia would continue expanding its foreign military bases in other neighboring countries as well,stating: “We keep developing our bases abroad: in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia. We are developing them rather actively.”

During the TASS interview on Wednesday, Ravkov attributed Russia’s military buildup in his country to the growing NATO presence along Belarus’ borders. "Along with strengthening the aviation component of NATO member-countries in the Baltics States and Poland that perform the functions of hoarding the airspace, the Alliance is gradually concentrating additional military contingents equipped with heavy weaponry near the Belarusian borders," he said.

Belarus already operates the Russian-built MiG-29 Fulcrums. In 2013, Belarus announced it was again upgrading its MiG-29s, giving them “additional glass cockpit avionics, new radar with ground scanning capability and a sat-nav system, based either on GLONASS or GPS,” according to The Aviationist.

The Belarus Air Force also operates the Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-25.