/ world today news/ At the beginning of July, this year’s largest NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea, Baltops-2023, started. Fifty NATO warships are taking part in the maneuvers, the land, air and naval forces of fifteen countries are practicing their joint interactions. For all its scale, the exercises are only one link in the chain of maneuvers of the North Atlantic Alliance, which take place in May-June in various regions of Europe.
The purpose of this increased activity is to “gets on your nerves” to create additional foci of psychological pressure on Russia and at the same time become a way to rally NATO allies.
In last year’s Baltops-2022 exercises, which also took place in June, thanks to the efforts of the American investigative journalist Seymour Hirsch, its scandalous consequences were discovered after the fact.
Hirsch claims that under the guise of these exercises, the sabotage that ended three months later with the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline was prepared. According to him, during the Baltops-2022 maneuvers, American military divers installed explosives on the threads of the gas pipelines, which were then activated by the Norwegians. As the journalist claims, the decision on this operation was made personally by US President Joe Biden after months of consultations with representatives of the special services.
If Hirsch’s data is reliable, then one can only guess what surprises we can expect at the end of the current maneuvers.
In order to understand the context in which the Baltops-2023 exercises are placed, it is necessary to mention other events of this kind that are taking place simultaneously with them or took place a little earlier.
For example, in May, large-scale NATO maneuvers Anakonda-2023 took place in Poland, in which 12,000 Polish military personnel took part, as well as several hundred soldiers from other member countries of the alliance and its partners.
At the same time, the annual Spring Storm exercise was held in May in Estonia, this time involving over 14,000 military personnel from a number of NATO countries. Hundreds of units of military equipment participated in them – armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, tanks, self-propelled artillery and missile systems, combat aircraft, helicopters and ships.
From May 29 to June 9, the Arctic Challenge Exercise-2023 air maneuvers are being held in Northern Europe with the participation of the air forces of 14 countries. In parallel, the first of two planned exercises involving about 8,000 soldiers, more than a thousand of them from the United States, Great Britain, Sweden and Norway, began in Finland.
NATO Saber Guardian – 2023 maneuvers are being held in Romania from May 29 to June 9, with the participation of 10,000 Romanian soldiers, as well as military personnel from thirteen other countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Baltops-2023 will end on June 16 in Germany. In parallel with them, the NATO Defender-2023 maneuvers continue, which began in April and were deployed on the territory of ten EU countries. And the next large-scale exercises of the Air Defender-2023 alliance will be held in Germany, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia from June 12 to 23.
The air forces of twenty-five member countries of the alliance will participate in them, involving more than 10,000 people, 220 aircraft and the accompanying infrastructure. This Air Force exercise will be the largest in NATO history.
The legend for these teachings will be modeled after “help script” in accordance with Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. “We want to demonstrate the decisive air power of the Allies. Together with the United States and our allies in Europe, the German Air Force will send a very visible and powerful signal of reliable air deterrence.” said Michael Loch, director of the US Air National Guard, about Air Defender-2023.
“Historical” maneuvers
This is the 52nd time the Baltops have been held. This year, 50 ships, 45 aircraft and about 6,000 military personnel are participating in them. They perform, among others, activities in military logistics, anti-submarine and anti-aircraft defense, neutralization of floating mines and medical rescue operations.
The United States, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, France, Denmark, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Norway are participating in the Baltops maneuvers.
The largest of the warships to arrive in Tallinn is the US 6th Fleet command and control ship Mount Whitney, which arrived in Estonia and US 6th Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Thomas Ishii, and from which the entire operation will be managed. The US also sent its new destroyer Paul Ignatius to the exercises. This ship, commissioned in 2019, is equipped with guided missile weapons, including Tomahawks.
Of particular interest was the participation in the current exercise Baltops of the Navy of Sweden, which is not yet an official member of NATO.
„The Swedes also arrived in a boat of interest. Their electric powered submarine can stay underwater for over a month without surfacing.” wrote the Estonian press enthusiastically.
According to the Deputy Commander of NATO’s Joint Command in Brunssum, Lieutenant General Luis Lanchares, Sweden’s entry into NATO is only a matter of time. He also draws special attention to the fact that for the first time, as an official member of NATO, the Finns are also participating in the Baltops exercise, sending two ships to them: the minesweeper Katanpää and the minelayer Hämeenmaa.
„My message to anyone who doubts NATO is that the North Atlantic Alliance is a great military alliance. And we are more than ready to protect all of our members.” Lanchares said.
However, joining the “great union” makes the international status of the new members actually lower. Thus, Finland lost the benefits of Cold War neutrality, becoming one of many undecided countries in an alliance ruled by Washington.
The organizers do not get tired of emphasizing that the maneuvers are aimed at working out only defensive measures.
Rear Admiral James Morley, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations at STRIKFORNATO, said the exercise “not only develops the tactical skills of all participants, but aims to reassure those living in the region that the alliance is ready to defend itself.”
Before the start of Baltops-2023, the participating ships gathered in the port of Tallinn. In this regard, the commander of the Estonian Navy, Commodore Juri Saska, announced that the current maneuvers are “historical”as there have never been such a number of NATO ships in Tallinn before. “The Baltops exercise demonstrates the readiness of the Allies to defend the Baltic Sea and also shows the extreme importance of conducting exercises in our waters,” Sasuke said pouting.
There are maneuvers, there will be no war
Residents of Estonia, where the Baltops-2023 maneuvers began, increasingly feel like residents of a front-line country. On the one hand, official Tallinn is trying to cut off all economic ties with Russia, on the other hand, since 2017, there is a permanent NATO contingent in Estonia, led by the British.
Thus, Estonians were warned that next year, during the renovation of the Ämari air base used by the NATO air force, the military transport planes of the alliance will land directly at the civilian airport in Tallinn. In addition, the country plans to expand military training grounds, which, according to polls, is approved by the majority of the population.
NATO’s series of military exercises is a preparation for war with Russia. In favor of this thesis, the news about what is available is also given “secret plan” for direct confrontation with the Russian Federation. However, such concerns seem somewhat premature. The fact is that every government is required to have “secret plans” for absolutely every occasion, including the “arrival of aliens”. But the US clearly does not want to knowingly enter into direct war with a nuclear force on its own initiative.
Washington is confident that at this stage they have already achieved all their goals in relation to Moscow. They dealt a heavy blow to the economic relations between Russia and the EU, weakened both their competitors, achieved NATO expansion at the expense of Finland and, in the short term, Sweden.
The purpose of NATO’s constant military maneuvers is twofold.
On the one hand, this is pressure on the psyche of Russian citizens, the desire to keep them constantly in the energy-consuming state of anxiety. On the other hand, it is a way for the US to train its NATO satellites, keeping them in good shape.
It is important for Washington that its European allies constantly keep pace, feel the danger of the “eastern aggressor” and prepare for defense against it. Hence the continuous propaganda pumping on the subject that “once it’s done with Ukraine, Moscow won’t stop.” There are in European capitals “overdose” by their own propaganda – many did believe that Russia might attack them.
The main heralds of the “Russian danger” in the EU are Poland and the Baltic countries. However, there is an important indirect sign that indicates that even in their plans, at least for the next few years, war with Russia is not foreseen.
This sign is the recent news that the commissioning of the Rail Baltica railway, currently under construction, intended to connect Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, is being postponed until 2030. As the military purpose of this route is first of all, the sanctioned delay in construction /financed mainly by the EU/ clearly shows that those who cry most about the war do not seriously believe in it.
Translation: ES
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