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Special Report: "Its the Russians, Stupid"

990617 Russia / Belarus

ITAR-TASS reports that Russias Armed Forces will soon participate in exercises designed to prepare the military for "space missile and missile and bomb airstrikes by an armed coalition of Western countries" against economic targets in eastern Russia. The exercise will involve a bulk of the navy, air force and air defense units in Russia, as well as units from the Belarussian Defense Ministry. An officer in the Russian Air Force press office told ITAR-TASS that the decision to hold the exercises came from the government leadership and that the maneuvers were a direct result of the ongoing situation in the Balkans.

-- Look (Watch@Listen.com), June 17, 1999

Answers

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/news/1999/06/__02/19990618_0233.htm

06/18/1999

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American aircraft increasing patrols

U.S. planes, including F-15, F-14 and F-18 fighters, B-52 bombers and EA-6B, are increasing air patrols and have been put on standby, said a USFK spokesman.

However, two U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, which arrived in a South Korean port, would be leaving soon, Kim Young-kyu said.

The U.S. move came while South Korean forces and U.S. troops in Korea are keeping a close eye on the North Korean military to ward off another possible provocation by the Communist North.

South Korean forces are on heightened alert, a state imposed following a 14-minute gunfight battle sinking a North Korean torpedo boat and seriously damaging five others. Two South Korean naval boats were also slightly damaged.

The gunfight began Tuesday morning when intruding North Korean ships opened fire and South Korean naval boats fired back.

A military official in Seoul noted that the North's provocation took place when a U.S. aircraft carrier, Kitty Hawk, based in Japan, was absent from the area to assist a mission in Kosovo. The U.S. has sent 18 F-15s to Korea to fill the gap.

"This could be a test of Washington's 'win-win strategy,'" he said.

But tensions seemed to have eased since the gun battle, as North Korean naval ships returned to their own waters.

South Korean military officials said that seven North Korean naval boats, escorting 10 to 20 fishing boats, are located 3km to 5km north of the sea border, the U.N.- imposed Northern Limit Line, which they had intruded for nine days leading to the tense standoff.

"Like Wednesday, they haven't crossed the NLL today, and there's yet no sign of renewed tension," Defense Ministry spokesman Cha Young-koo said.

"The situation has not been fully resolved, but has appeared to have quieted," he said. But he added that South Korean troops are still on heightened alert.

Cha said that the exchange of fire "well demonstrated that we (South and North) need to solve issues through dialogue and cooperation." A vice minister-level officials' meeting is scheduled to take place in Beijing next Monday, the first official talks in 14 months between the two countries.

As the situation seems to have eased, the Defense Ministry postponed an emergency key military commanders' meeting till next week.

Defense Minister Cho Sung-tae ordered South Korean armed forces not to "irritate" North Korean troops.

Separately, North Korea canceled repatriation of Korean War-era remains of U.S. soldiers through the truce village of Panmunjom. The United Nations Command said it was unrelated to tensions in the West Sea, but due to procedural matter.

Updated: 06/18/1999 by Lee Sung-yul Staff reporter

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-- Look (Watch@Listen.com), June 17, 1999.

Russia plans major maneuvers Click on our sponsors!

Updated 4:49 PM ET June 15, 1999

MOSCOW, June 15 (UPI) Russia will conduct wide-scale, weeklong military maneuvers next week aimed at rehearsing defense tactics against a hypothetical attack from the West, the Russian Defense Ministry says.

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev will take charge of the exercises, code-named West-99, that will place virtually all units in western Russia on high alert and involve the armed forces of neighboring Belarus.

The Defense Ministry declined today to link the maneuvers, which will last from Monday to Saturday, with the situation in the Balkans.

While not stating so openly, Russia is also alarmed by Norway's decision to host NATO-led exercises in Finnmark, the northern part of Norway, only 100 miles (160 km) west of Russia's border.

Norway claims that planning began years ago for the Barents Peace-99 exercise, which started this week, although its aims echo NATO's situation in Kosovo: In the exercise, a hypothetical multinational peacekeeping operation is launched in a hostile environment after an ethnic conflict in two imaginary states creates a tide of refugees and a humanitarian crisis.

Norwegian, U.S., British and German forces, as well as units from the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, and neutral Sweden and Finland, are taking part in the operation, which encompasses the army, navy and air force.

Norwegian officials say the aim of the exercise is to improve coordination in humanitarian and rescue operations.

For decades, Norway had declared Finnmark off limits to NATO maneuvers so as not to create tension with the Soviet Union.

Until this year, when Poland joined the military alliance, Norway was the only NATO member sharing a land border with Russia in the west. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

They are preparing their new recruits and for retaliatory attacks. They are also preparing their people psychologically for war. B

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), June 17, 1999.

And our President can't even get his country to prepare for a three day storm.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 17, 1999.

I saw that West-99 Post and then it was gone...

Please post a source for the games...

Inquireing minds want to know...

-- Look (Watch@Listen.com), June 18, 1999.

http://news.excite.com/news/u/990615/16/international-military

Yeah I couldn't find it either until a friend emailed me back and the article was still attached. Let us hope it is a drill. b

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), June 18, 1999.