Combat readiness exercise held in Russia's westernmost Kaliningrad region

The snap check involved up to 9,000 people, 642 pieces of weaponry and equipment, including 250 tanks and armored vehicles, about a hundred artillery mounts, 55 ships, and 41 aircraft

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A surprise inspection of combat readiness of troops was held from December 5 through December 10 in Russia's westernmost Kaliningrad region, which is an exclave territory in the southeast of the Baltic Sea littoral area, General Andrei Kartapolov, the chief of Operations Department at the General Staff of the Armed Forces said on Tuesday.

The troops were inspected in line with a decision of President Vladimir Putin, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

"It embraced up to 9,000 people, 642 pieces of weaponry and equipment, including 250 tanks and armored vehicles, about a hundred artillery mounts and salvo systems, 55 naval ships, and 41 aircraft," says a report issued by the General Staff. "The inspectors assessed combat readiness of the group of troops of the Western Military District and its capability to ensure security of the Kaliningrad region."

"The exercise involved the units or missile troops, artillery, mechanized infantry, airborne troops, marine forces, reconnaissance, signal corps, logistics, as well as combat aircraft and airlifters and ships of the Baltic Fleet," the report said.

Over a period of two days, the airlift jets and ships of the Baltic Fleet relocated two a missile brigade and an airborne brigade to the Kaliningrad region.

Units of the missile brigade had Iskander-M missile complexes among the equipment delivered to Kaliningrad.

The units of branches and services of the Armed Forces have returned to the bases of permanent stationing, the report said.

Comment: Is this Russia's response to the recent NATO exercise called 'Trident Lance' which dealt with "the hypothetical invasion of NATO member Estonia?"

See: Operation "Trident Lance" - Is Kaliningrad NATO's real target?

Of course Russia is not going to "invade Estonia", an absurd hypothesis. There is no conceivable evidence or reason for a "Russian invasion" of Estonia.

But examine a map of the Baltic. There, very discretely, lies Kaliningrad. A small enclave of half a million people belonging to Russia. It used to be Königsburg, a part of Germany, lost in the Second World War. Wedged between Poland and Lithuania, it is already hit by damage to its trade with the E.U. resulting from U.S.-imposed sanctions.The prospect of recuperating Kaliningrad/Königsberg through some manipulated incident could be a factor in the present official German anti-Russian position, which goes against German economic interests and about half of German public opinion.

A war to conquer Kaliningrad would be started by some contrived "international crisis" to "respond" to.

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