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Putin to visit Belarus on Thursday

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Belarus on September 26 to observe a Belarusian-Russian strategic military exercise called Zapad 2013 together with Alyaksandr Lukashenka, reported the press office of the Belarusian leader.

“The heads of state will visit the Hozha training ground in the Hrodna region in Belarus and the Khmelevka training ground of the Russian Armed Forces in Russia’s Kaliningrad province,” the press office said.

The September 20-26 two-stage exercise takes place on six training grounds in Belarus and the Khmelevka training ground in the Kaliningrad exclave, involving more than 10,000 Belarusian troops, about 2,500 Russian troops, and some 300 troops representing Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, as well as about 70 tanks, more than 50 artillery and multiple rocket launch units and over 50 warplanes and helicopters.

Some 200 personnel of Belarus' 103rd Independent Mobile Brigade will be involved in the exercise in the Kaliningrad exclave.

Minsk and Moscow have repeatedly stressed that Zapad (West) 2013 is of a strictly defensive nature, whereas politicians in Poland and other NATO countries have condemned the exercise maneuvers, describing them as directed against Poland and the Alliance. //BelaPAN