300,000 troops, 900 tanks: It’s called the most massive Russian military exercise since the Cold War, and China’s role is growing

By: Todd South   5 days ago


10.4K

Russian soldiers march in a Victory Day military parade last year in Moscow. Russia is now massing troops and equipment for what Kremlin officials say will be the country's largest military exercise in four decades. (Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images)




Following last year’s massive Russian military exercise on the western border, the country is headed into the largest military drills in nearly four decades on its eastern flank.


Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced this week that the Vostok-2018 exercise from Sept. 11-15 would involve as many as 300,000 troops, 1,000 aircraft and 900 tanks with units from China and Mongolia also participating.


The drills will be “on an unprecedented scale both in terms of the area covered and in terms of the numbers,” Shoigu told Russian state media.


It will include all their military’s airborne units and both northern and Pacific naval fleets, he said.


“Imagine 36,000 pieces of military equipment moving together at the same time — tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles. And all of this, of course, in conditions as close to combat as possible,” he said, CBS News reported.




The last time this many Russian and allied forces mounted in such a training drill was in 1981, before the bulk of new U.S. soldiers were born and a decade before the end of the Cold War, according to Reuters news agency.




What’s Putin up to? The Russian military buildup in Europe raises tension.

With thousands of troops and tanks moving toward the Suwalki Gap and the Baltic Sea, the Russian military exercise that starts this week is fueling fears of confrontation with the U.S. and its NATO allies.
By: Todd South


Russian officials have called such large-scale exercises necessary in an environment of aggressive and hostile actions from the United States and European neighbors.


This Russian effort also coincides with U.S. military shifts from counterinsurgency work in the Middle East to equipping, manning and training for “near-peer” competitors such as Russia and China.


The announcement comes amid what some experts have called the lowest point in relations between Russia and NATO allies since the end of the Cold War.


Ambitious plans




Beginning in 2010, Russia announced its military buildup to modernize and expand its military footprint. Much of that has been delayed through failed equipment procurements, falling oil prices and U.S.-led sanctions.


For instance, to upgrade their stealth fighter fleet they first announced an order for 52 PAK-FA T-50 jets, which dropped to 12 after costs rose beyond the planned budget, according to Newsweek.


An ambitious plan put out three years ago would have acquired 2,300 high-tech Armata T-14 tanks by 2020. But within a year they instead pushed to refurbish 3,000 existing tanks used by the former Soviet Union forces between the mid 1970s and early 1990s, Newsweek reported.


Though the announcement was first relayed to NATO allies in May and NATO military attaches were invited to attend, it is only since Shoigu’s public comments that media attention has emerged.


This marks a stark contrast with last year’s Zapad-17, which took place within and near Belarus, near Baltic states, whose leadership sounded alarm bells over Russian maneuvering offensive operations in the region.




Russian officials stated that only 12,700 Russian troops participated in the much-scrutinized exercise. But multiple experts cried foul and put the exercise figure at more than 100,000 troops.


Shortly after the western district exercise, Poland held its own, defensive, exercise dubbed Dragon-17 that used 17,000 troops and 3,500 pieces of equipment for more than a week.


Since then, Polish officials have publicly called for a permanent U.S. military base within their borders, in part to deter perceived Russian aggression and advancements.


That echoes an agreement earlier this year to double the number of U.S. Marines on a rotational basis in Norway from about 330 to 700.


That announcement drew a sharp response from Russian officials, who said it violates decades old NATO agreements and called it an “attack” on the region.


Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to officers during a visit to military exercises at Donguzsky Range in Orenburg, Russia, in September 2015. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)


Much of the worry and posturing comes after the 2014 Russian takeover of Crimea, which was followed by subversive Russian support for pro-Russian factions fighting in Ukraine, which continues today.




In addition, an estimated 3,200 Russian troops were recently stationed in Georgia and another 7,000 in Moldova, both against the opposition of those nations’ governments, Newsweek reported.


The upcoming training event would see three times as many as last year’s western district exercise roving around areas of Russia’s eastern and central military district, which borders China.


That’s nearly half of the entire Russian military force, which numbers close to 800,000 troops, Newsweek reported.


China’s involvement grows


China’s role is limited but new.


More than 3,000 Chinese soldiers with 900 pieces of equipment will work jointly within the Russian borders for the exercise. Past versions of the Vostok exercises have planned for China as the aggressor or enemy, rather than an ally.




While China has conducted joint training with Russia since at least 2005, it has not before done so within Russian borders at this scale, experts told the Wall Street Journal.

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Proof: Intel Drop, Trump, Bolton behind Syria chemical attacks, confirmed

Germany, Britain, America, Israel - VT provides proof of chemical warfare and war crimes.

By

 Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

 -

April 8, 2018

30

20656

…by Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

SAA captured gas concentration unit. Made in America, 2015, by Hillrom Company, Michigan

[ Editor’s Note: VT has long covered the “aiding and abetting” of terrorists by the US coalition, and by derivation NATO, for some time now. We view its going on unchecked as a major national security threat to all countries.

Unfortunately Western corporate media, with financial resources far beyond VT, has played Mickey the Dunce on this whole story, the case usually being that the respective country intelligence agencies have warned them to stay away from it all, or suffer the consequences.

VT has also followed closely the long series of false flag chemical weapons attacks, both sarin and military-grade chlorine because we knew the Syrians would never be so stupid as to hand their heads to the US Coalition in a silver platter by doing something with no chance of any gain, but exactly the opposite.

We were also concerned that the longer “they” got away with doing this, the more innocent people would be murdered by the alleged protectors of freedom and democracy in the world, but who we know to be currently among the worst enemies of mankind.

Unfortunately, despite our best labors, the citizens of these countries have done almost nothing to hold those accountable in their own countries.

The SAA capturing this chemical weapons facility was a huge turn of events. The guilty parties knew what the Syrians had on them now. We have been waiting to see who would do what.

Now that might have changed, with our long pleadings for the Syrians to give us photographic proof of the chemical weapons assets they have been capturing – serial numbers and all – so we could cram it down the throats of the guilty, thinking maybe someone inside the respective countries might want to start asking some hard questions.

The flurry of military accidents also caught our attention, as we know historically that this method is used by the military to hide overseas combat deaths for which any public investigation would be embarrassing.

In Vietnam, if a thousand of our troops were lost in one week, the announcement would be spread out, the families lied to. Welcome to the dark underside of America.

The impending attack on Damascus by the US was partially due to what the SAA might uncover in East Ghouta; and because they were able to move fast, they overran the US Coalition’s chemical weapons operations faster than anyone thought possible.

Our pleading with Syria has been rewarded with these new photos. The SAA has US Coalition chemical weapons officers in custody; and Russia has told the US, Brits, Israelis, and Saudis that they will have to deal with Damascus.

How long US media and our own Congress can pretend they know nothing about who some of the major terrorist elements are that most are afraid to mention? Their house of cards is crumbling, and “they” will be more dangerous in that situation, as we are talking about some serious crimes here.

We are suspicious of why the Brits would throw together what appears to us to have been a sloppy false flag, even to use against Russia, for putting Russia’s feet in the fire to get the Brits people back from Syria and keep this story out of major news distribution.

Is now the time for some of the really guilty to have to pay the piper? We shall see. But for that to happen, what is left of non-compromised public institutions has to step up to the plate, when they have shown a hesitancy to do so when their countries really needed them.

We hope they will get to see this and start asking the obvious questions… Jim W. Dean ]

[table id=DonateDean /]

A chemical artillery shell

– First published … April 08, 2018 –

Today another chemical weapons stockpile was found in East Ghouta, produced in Germany, fully weaponized and commercially produced by Merck. 

Merck was the primary producer of chemical weapons for Germany in World War I and George Merck founded the War Research Service along with Frank Olson in 1944, which using captured Germany and Japanese scientists and research facilities, took control of America’s biological and chemical warfare production which continues to this day in facilities at Fort Meade, Maryland and at the Lugar Lab in Tibilisi, Georgia in partnership with the current government of Ukraine.

Chlorine gas-filled shell from Porton Down, Salisbury, found in East Ghouta with al Qaeda

Last week, Russia and Syria announced the capture of British chemical weapon stockpiles in East Ghouta along with the capture of a “coalition” command and chemical weapons facility with all personnel. Taken from the combined statement censored from the western press, from March 25, 2018

“The Syrian Arab Army and with the help of Russian captured a shipment of chemical weapons destined for the Eastern Ghouta. These were British weapons produced at Porton Down in Salisbury. Russian suspects that the Skripal incident is related as by their records, Skiripal was working at Porton Down as a chemical weapons trafficker in partnership with a Ukrainian firm. Russia denies attacking Skripal but admits he was under surveillance for his activities involving support of terrorism in Syria and arms trafficking.

Russia also confirms that there are British, American, Israeli and Saudi intelligence officers who were caught by the Syrian army in one of the heavily fortified operations rooms during the invasion of the Syrian army and its allies of the East Ghouta.” 

VT asked the Syrian government for serial numbers and closeup photographs of chemical weapons used. Syria sent them to us today.

Today, the Syrian Army captured the following German made poison gas shells, shipped into Syria though Ukraine and Turkey and delivered to Jeish al Islam by a US CH53 helicopter, according to statements “allegedly” gotten from POW interrogations.

American, British and Israeli military personnel captured in Syria have confirmed they were ordered to stage chemical attacks in East Ghouta by their governments.

The Americans are still being held along with Israeli’s while British prisoners are being negotiated for. Sources in Damascus told us that representatives of Oman in Damascus approached the Russian Office of Reconciliation on behalf of Britain for the return of British chemical warfare personnel.

The shells in the above video are identified as VX gas from British stockpiles.

Russian officials in Syria informed Britain through Oman that they would have to directly deal with Syria for the return of their personnel. We have received no further information since, Damascus has remained silent on how or if negotiations were proceeding.

We do know that US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a US Army combat veteran of Iraq, met with both President Assad and Donald Trump, in order to arrange for covert exchange, for substantial financial consideration, of captured Americans.

Initial introductions for this meeting were done by VT.

Israel bought back a Brigadier General (they claimed he was a colonel) in 2015 that we know about.

The recent gas attack in Syria, timed as the last terrorists were surrendering for relocation inside the Douma region of the Ghouta pocket, was planned personally by nominated presidential advisor John Bolton and President Donald Trump personally, according to highly placed sources.

Our sources in Russia, highest level, told us the attack was coming based on information they received from US and Israeli prisoners taken in East Ghouta after an evacuation attempt failed.

US casualty announcements in this effort have been released over the past few days as happening in other areas to cover US complicity in terrorism. This dishonors families of the dead, not just in the misuse of service members to support terrorism but in lying to families about combat deaths. This shame goes directly to coward Trump!

“The Marine Corps identified four Marines killed on Tuesday in a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crash near El Centro, Calif. The Marines were assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 465, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

“The loss of our Marines weighs heavy on our hearts,” Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commanding general of 3rd MAW, said in a statement.
“Our priority is to provide support for our families and HMH-465 during this critical time.”

The four Marines killed in the crash were Capt. Samuel A. Schultz, First Lt. Samuel D. Phillips, Gunnery Sgt. Derik R. Holley and Lance Cpl. Taylor J. Conrad.”

Other US casualties were listed as a US Air Force F16 that allegedly crashed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and up to 6 Americans who the US claims were killed by “Kurdish forces” in the north of Syria.

All died in a failed combined US/Israel rescue operation to remove not only communications and command personnel but also chemical weapons operations teams as well.

Last week, VT Damascus received evidence that Americans, US Army Special Forces along with Israeli chemical weapons officers had been captured in East Ghouta. We were told that not only was a command facility captured with modern weapons but a stockpile of British made 81mm poison gas mortar shells, numbering in the hundreds, was seized as well.

Video’s were viewed by former MOD weapons specialists who identified the green stripe on the shells seized in East Ghouta as VX gas from British stockpiles.

The Obama administration investigated alleged chemical attacks in 2012 and 2013 and advised Syria to turn over chemical stockpiles as a way of discouraging terrorists from continuing to stage chemical attacks to blame on Damascus.

Most efforts had their roots in Britain’s MI6 and its affiliates, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets.

The US is currently facing combined military operations against its occupied zone in Syria by Iraq, Syrian and Russian forces. The US has been told to remove forces from Syria or face a wider conflict.

The US and Russia have been at war against one another inside Syria for about a month now.

More coming…

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/04/08/proof-intel-drop-trump-bolton-behind-syria-chemical-attacks-confirmed/q 

America: Prepare for coming invasion already in process

Foreign Troops Pouring in to the United States

Prepare for Civil War

 

Trump Knows the Invasion is Coming

 and Is Quietly Preparing