Latvia: During Zapad-2017 exercises Russia rehearsed a blockade of the Baltics
The Ministry of Defense of Latvia has not yet released an official assessment of the Russia-Belarus joint exercises but Latvian Minister of Defense Raimonds Bergmanis informed Delfi news agency that many facts point to the Baltic blockade scenario being worked out already.
Zapad 2017 officially ended on September 20. Although the active phase of the exercises is over, the Russian armed forces activities will continue, Bergmanis said. He noted that much attention was drawn to the exercises and, more importantly, to what happened before and after them.
"Assessing the overall picture, in my opinion, many elements of the Baltic region blockade were being worked out," the minister said. He added that the official analysis of the exercises has not yet been conducted so there was no need to rush to premature conclusions.