Zapad 2017

Overview
Belarus and Russia hold the Zapad (West) 2017 exercises between September 14 and 20th, 2017, all be it with a few days preparation either side of it It.

Details
The event will involve ~5,500 Russian troops, ~7,200 from Belarus, and up to 70 aircraft, 250 tanks, 200 artillery pieces and 10 navy ships, according to Russia.

It is both a traing exesise and a atempt to show off it's latest millitery assets in acton.

Political reactions
Some Baltic political figures like Lithuania's Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis and Western officials including the head of the U.S. Army in Europe, Gen. Ben Hodges, have raised concerns that it is a ruse to invade the Baltic States or at least an act of intimidation.

Russia claimed it is the West that threatened the stability of Eastern Europe because the U.S.-led NATO alliance, which includes German, British, French, Danish and Dutch has put a 4,000-strong multinational force in the Baltics and Poland.