Open face-off with the West, US and NATO after the August war with Georgia was not a surprise for the Russian military and political leadership, and their response was quite prompt. Since 1st September “the most large-scaled complex strategic exercises during last 20 years” (an expression by the commander of the land forces Vladimir Boldyrev) have been going on, being named “Stability 2008”, which will be held in 4 stages and will last 74 days. According to President Dmitry Medvedev, the military exercise will involve 47,000 people, 134 bodies of troop’s management, and over 7,300 units of heavy materiel. “Stability 2008” is direct preparation of special services, state apparatus and army for possible large-scale nuke war with the US and NATO.       

All the available forces of nuclear deterrence - sea, air and surface based – also the Baltic, Northern and Pacific Fleets, the troops of Moscow, Privoljsko-Uralsky and Far East military districts, 4 Air Force armies, anti-aircraft forces of the Special Troops defending Moscow and the Central region – all that is taking part in the broad-object exercise. Participating also are Cosmic Troops, paratrooper forces, rear services, federal bodies of executive power, including interior ministry, emergency ministry, ministry of justice, federal penal department, ministry of transport, and the allied units from Belarus and Kazakhstan.        

The military department affirms that “the scenario of the exercise assumes the gradual aggravation of the situation where the crisis situations may grow into armed conflicts”. The theme of the exercise is “direct preparation of the army forces for liquidation of the armed conflicts and secure of strategic stability”. In the Far East, over the course of the exercise titled “Bereg” the united alignment of troops will be opposing “enemy’s” intrusion on Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. In the meanwhile, the Special Purpose Troops will be beating off a “mass missile-aircraft stroke” on the Moscow region, while Air Forces, imitating an American-NATO attack, will be practicing an attacking operation in the European seat of war. The whole matter would be topped with a strategic nuke missile blow on the US. When the smoke cleared away, the desired “stability” would come, as no one would be able to fight and there would be no weapons remaining.  

As it was stated by Medvedev in the city of Orenburg, “stability is what our state is striving for, this is what we must stand for in any situations, and use the military force for that if necessary… We have got convinced that the war may break suddenly and be absolutely real, and the smouldering conflicts, called “frozen” sometimes, may turn into real war fire”. Accordingly to that, Medvedev has posed the tasks up to 2020: to turn “all the military units and troops into the category of constant combat readiness”, to increase the efficiency of the managing system in the army forces (“otherwise one cannot count on success in modern wars”), to perfect the personnel training system, to equip the troops with new and up-to-date weapons. “It is planned the serial production of the military ships, nuke submarines above all, equipped with winged missiles, and the multi-purpose submarines”. It has been ordered “to get the advantage in the air in terms of high precise strikes made on surface and sea targets, also in terms of operative maneuvering of the troops”.   

The strategic exercise “Stability 2008” is no improvisation in response to the crisis of relations with the West after the conflict in Georgia. The defense minister Anatoly Serdiukov has noted it has been in preparation for more than one year. The intrusive troops had been mobilized and concentrated in the front lines by the beginning of August during the military exercise titled “Caucasus 2008”. Simultaneously, additional power forces were prepared for strategic support of Georgian operation, as it was not known till the end whether Americans would interfere or not. This time we landed on both feet, and now the mobilized forces and means are being trained for future, in this mega-exercise. It’s been for the first time after the Soviet Union collapse that our authority carries out military exercise intending direct preparation for the large-scale war with the West. This is why all the organs of the executive power are involved, while military commissariats carry on a mass summon of reservists in attempt of forming additional reserve units.     

The exercise is accompanied with massive informational-propagandist campaign. A group of journalists was sent with the nuke cruiser “Pyotr Veliky”; they transmit their reportages through the satellite connection. The intention and the scale of this exercise is not concealed, on the contrary, it is over-emphasized.     

Our leaders may be having pipe dreams of “advantage in the air“ and look for “stability” resting on the rusty soviet nuke bludgeon, but in reality, of course, they hope to be able to come to a guy-like “real” agreement with the West about non-interfering into one another’s spheres of influence. Although Medvedev is learning assiduously the “strong language”, it does not sound naturally with him, unlike Putin. And the West might get angry out of fear, with sad consequences for everyone.