U.S. allies in Eastern Europe and Ukraine is concerned about military exercises, which Russia will host in September, and suggest that they may be a kind of «Trojan horse» — cover in order to transport their military equipment in Belarus, said the commander of U.S. forces in Europe.
Russia has assured NATO that the military exercise will not violate any international restrictions, but NATO officials and the United States are still wary of the sizes and purposes of these exercises.
Lieutenant General of the U.S. army Ben Hodges, U.S. army Europe, in an interview with Reuters said that officials of the allies will be closely monitoring the military equipment imported to Belarus for exercises «West-2017» and beyond that, whether it is later withdrawn.
A senior Russian diplomat flatly denied the allegations that Moscow can leave military equipment in Belarus.
«This artificial hype, raised around the most conventional exercises, aimed at justifying a dramatic increase of NATO on the territory of Russia», — said on Friday in interview to Agency «Interfax» the Deputy Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Grigory Karasin.
NATO allies nervous because in previous large-scale Russian exercises used special forces, missiles, long-range and unmanned aerial vehicles.
It is not known whether Moscow to adhere to the Treaty during the cold war, according to which in the exercise, which involved more than 13 000 troops, there should be international observers.
However, Moscow said that they certainly would have invited observers, if the number of soldiers exceeded this number.
Hodges said that during the Russian military exercises of NATO will stick to their usual activities performing previously planned exercises in Sweden, Poland and Ukraine.
