Russia and China Rehearse Nuclear World War III

• Russia and China Rehearse Nuclear World War III
  by RICHARD PALMER, https://www.thetrumpet.com/
  One of the largest military exercises ever to take place in history begins today. Russia’s Vostok 2018 war games will be even bigger than the Soviet Union’s largest military exercise in 1981. Russia’s Defense Ministry says the exercise will include 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 combat vehicles and 80 ships. The troop component is twice the size of the entire British Army.
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  “Looking at which and how many troops are involved, it’s clear that Russia is training for world war,” Sarah Pagung of the German Council on Foreign Relations told Deutsche Welle. Dr. Stephen Blank, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, wrote for the Interpreter, “Clearly Russia is rehearsing a large-scale war.” And not just any war. Russia’s exercises include nuclear weapons.
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  Russia’s nuclear-capable missiles will be included in the drills. Russia’s two fleets capable of launching nuclear weapons are both participating. Civil authorities are also taking part: They are rehearsing Russian society’s ability to cope with nuclear war. And China is invited.
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  “Coming six months after Beijing’s biggest ever offshore naval drills, the joint war games are another reminder of how central military posturing now is to the world’s two most powerful authoritarian states,” wrote Peter Appa at Reuters.
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  Appa warned that “both Beijing and Moscow want to give every impression they are increasingly ready—and are relying on that message to dominate their neighborhoods and intimidate less-powerful nearby nations.”
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  Russia’s decision to invite China marks a major step in the already close relationship between the two. The two have held 30 joint training exercises since 2003, but Russia has never invited China to take part in a drill this important. Only virtual Russian puppet states, like Belarus, have been invited. The South China Morning Post wrote that “the decision to include China in Vostok 2018 surprised some defense analysts because the drills had previously been off-limits to foreign armed forces—and in some cases included potential conflict scenarios with China.”
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