Red herring amid scandal? Belarus MoD claims attempts to foil Zapad-2017 war game
There were attempts to disrupt the jount Belarusian-Russian war game Zapad-2017, Belarus Defense Minister Andrey Raukou states.
“I want to emphasize that our country, our Armed Forces of Belarus got through this exam [Zapad-2017] with dignity in spite of unprecedented pressure, including attempts to disrupt the drills, hit the Belarus-Russian relations, oppose Belarus to Western countries,” Raukou told in an interview with the MoD official newspaper.
According to him, these attempts were thwarted.
“They were curbed due to effective system of national security, including information security,” he said.
The military exercise Zapad-2017 was staged on September, 14-20. Both Russian and Belarusian side stated that their action were of purely of defensive nature. In early September, president Alyaksandr Lukashenka reiterated that the joint Belarusian-Russian war game Zapad-2017 was not aimed at attacking anyone.
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According to the organizers, nearly 13,000 troops were involved in the war game as well as 40 aviation equipment pieces, 140 tanks, 150 mortars and multiple rocket launchers and 10 ships. Formally, in according with the 2011 Vienna Document, in such a case a full-scale observation is not not required. But NATO officials questioned the figures above and made suggestions that 100,000 soldiers might have taken part in the maneuvers.
It should be noted that the Belarusian Ministry of Defense has made the statement when facing a massive public outrage after the death of conscript Alyaksandr Korzhych.
The 21-year-old soldier was found hanged in the basement in the territory of a military unit in Pechy, his legs were tied up. According to the family and friends, senior conscripts bullied, battered and tortured the young man to squeeze money out of him. As a result, they allegedly killed him and then faked his suicide.
