Russia’s Giant Military Exercise Wasn’t A Cover For War After All (HBO)
Zapad, which translates to “West” in Russian, took place in western Russia and Belarus between Sept. 14 and Sept. 20. NATO’s Military Committee Head General Petr Peval had said the exercises looked like “a serious preparation for [a] big war”. Russia said 12,700 military personnel were involved, though some western estimates put that number at 100,000.
NATO observers were allowed to watch the war games, though some complained their access was restricted. VICE News visited Zapad and found the Russian military was touchy about what we could see and where we could go.
The exercises were hit by bad weather and occasional military mis-steps, with an attack helicopter accidentally firing on a group of men, injuring three. Russian president Vladimir Putin watched parts of Zapad, which involved a scenario where a fictitious region of Belarus tried to break away with help from NATO.
Russia has been modernizing is military for the past decade, at a time when trust with its western neighbors is at its lowest point since the Cold War. Sweden is currently holding its biggest military exercises in 20 years, involving 19,000 troops, with support from other NATO countries.
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NATO should have been destroyed after the fall of the USSR. Because history says that NATO was made in 1947 to go against communism ( Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact). There is none of that! Why does NATO still exist?!?!
Without the U.S., Russia would roll right over Europe in a month or less. NATO is a absolute joke. Not our responsibility to protect allies who aren't even grateful to us and constantly go against our international agendas.
russia is the only country capable of defeating USA … bt in the end INDIA is friend of both these countries so we wont let this happen … coz if war happens b/w any 2 superpower nation … this will lead to WW3 😔
Based.
"Nato have never been the agressor" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
America destroying whole Iraq is not a threat
Russia capturing Ukraine's piece of land Crimea where ethnic Russians are the most. Which is threat to the world?
The amount of propaganda the westerns are fed is immeasurable.
Russia isn't always the bad nation.
Stop blindly throwing around bullshit.
The US are a joke Man…..they conduct militarydrills n exercises all over the world like Poland etc which is literally on the doorstep of Russia which in other words can be described as provocation by when the Russian army conducted drills on their own land, the US is threatened…..wat a joke!!! 😂
The US shouldn't always poke their fingers in others matter!!! 🇷🇺
1:57 What are they trying to protect, do you see anything worth protecting?
Classic fake
why is it ok for nato to do trainings on russias boarders but not okay for russia to do it ?
NATO has never been the aggressor ?
Well sry guys but history tells otherwise
3:25 this guy is so true everybody is shittalking about me cuz im russian and want to invade the world
I just live my life here in russia and have to hear what western media says about me.
Russia is no longer Russia became the Soviet Union again with Putin as emperor
Poor NATO Russia Bordering morons… Will be nuked on day………I dont know how people dont see it
dont poke the bear! his patience wears thin!!!
Joke! Lol
I'm sorry who went to Iraq under false pretences? Who oversaw Libya's demise? Russia ain't perfect, but nobody is.
Russia saved us from Germany
i am from a neutral country and i can name 3,4 terrorist group directly or indirectly created by usa (isis being one of them),tell me some terrorist organisations created by russia.
Putin Goeilo!
"Russia wants to be friends"
10 seconds later "you will not intercept our missiles, we will shoot down your planes"
I think they should actually attack NATO
4:08 Russia seems to he the greatest defender against terrorism and people see that laughable"
Nato: creates ISIS
“NATO has never been the aggressor.”
children from Yugoslavia – https://youtu.be/HLJh-ad-DYA
What’s the odds she’s a spy????
With the availability of google translate that can pronounce words for you correctly in foreign tongues, it is unacceptable for Vice News to slaughter the name of the military exercise repeatedly throughout the video coverage. I’m talking about Zapad of course.
NATO has never been the aggressor is it a top level troll
I hope Ukraine wins. The people will finally decide to overthrow vladmir and join the eu if Ukraine wins. Russian bots please don't @t me.
Good luck
Laughed when the Russian senator said:"Russia doesn't need any more territory."
Putin himself literally used that exact same phrase, just a week before annexing Crimea.
I guess it's the 21st-century Russian equivalent of Hitler's "I have no more territorial demands in Europe" (spoken after he'd annexed Sudetenland, and a few months before he would go on to annex the rest of Czechia, part of Lithuania, and then Poland, finally triggering WW2).
Great words at the end. if you go against us, it will be bad for everyone
🤣🤣🤣
If you have a powerful military and you feel like doing exercises without hurting anyone. Why not.
Russia is big very big
Only pro Russians idiots can say "Civil war" in War between Ukraine and Russia!! Go to hell!
Life of russian citizens cost zero in Russia, imagine how much russian government bothers about looking bad killing its neighbors…
Russia does exercises – NATO pee pants.
,,NATO has never been the aggressor."
Lybia, Iraq, Yugoslavia: ,,Are we jokes to you?"
When russia show its force "oh noes thats illegal, Russia can't do that"…when USA shows their policing everywhere "US so what, we are the world police"….
So Russia has foreign observers on their excercises, but would we allow that on our excercise? They are mistreated heavily and blamed incorrectly
Usa is lost
I gotta become friends avec putin and spend all dat money he steals from rich people in russia
There is such a difference between Soviet and Russian Federation Generals. The Russian ones look like cowed careerists. The soviet ones looked and sounded boss level.
Russian fanatic: "Russia needs no extra territory"
Crimea: "Am I a joke to you?"
nato has never been the agresor…..wtf man…. how about bombing yugoslavia in 1999.
Russia isn't big. It looks big because it has a 17 million km2 landmass, but only about 6 million km2 is usable due to the rest being covered in permafrost. That makes Russia's effective – that is to say habitable and arable landmass smaller than the USA, and much smaller than Europe. It also has a population of about 150 million people. Once again, much smaller than USA and much much smaller than Europe. The USA and Europe on their own make Russia nervous, NATO makes them very nervous – and with good reason! Yes they are going to posture, what do you expect when their giant rich neighbours harass their borders?
It definitely is exercise for a war
ведущая – уля-ля))
VICE News visited Zapad and found the Russian military was touchy about what we could see and where we could go.
WATCH NEXT on Russia – http://bit.ly/2iuFxGp