Military and media reports hyped the Zapad military exercise as a major threat. In fact, what took place was nothing as dramatic as the West’s warnings would have led you to believe
Whatever happened to the imminent outbreak of World War Three? Earlier this month, you may recall, warnings about a “huge” Russian war game were everywhere, sowing alarm across the Western world. This could, we were told repeatedly, be Russia’s biggest military exercise since the end of the Cold War. “Massive” and “vast” were other adjectives used.
Military and media reports built Zapad-2017 – Zapad meaning West in Russian – into an almost unprecedented threat, but two particular claims stood out. Russia’s insistence that around 12,000 troops would take part was dismissed as a subterfuge; in reality, there would be upwards of 100,000. Läs artikel