Canadian troops in Latvia prepare for massive Russian military exercise

Canadian troops are seen arriving in Latvia on Saturday, June 10, 2017.

OTTAWA -- Canadian troops in Latvia will have front-row seats to a massive Russian military exercise this month that has set NATO on edge and sparked calls for calm across eastern Europe.

Scheduled to start Sept. 14 and run for a week, the so-called Zapad exercise is being billed as Russia's largest war game since the end of the Cold War more than 25 years ago.

It's also the first of its kind since NATO decided to send four brigades to eastern Europe to prevent further Russian aggression, after Moscow annexed Crimea and began to support separatist forces in Ukraine.

Canada is leading one of those multinational brigades, with 450 troops based in Latvia alongside counterparts from fellow NATO members Albania, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Slovenia.

Zapad has already caused jitters in eastern Europe, with Poland announcing this week that it will close the airspace on its border with Belarus -- which is taking part in Zapad with Russia -- for the entire month.

Karlis Eihenbaums, Latvia's ambassador to Canada, said his countrymen are trying to "stay calm and carry on," but he acknowledged that there are worries there, too.

"They're trying to check our central nervous system," Eihenbaums said of Russia, which he compared to a neighbourhood bully. "We are keeping a very close eye on the preparations for this exercise."

NATO and the Canadian military have likewise said they plan to remain, in the words of one NATO official, "vigilant and alert," but also "calm, balanced and measured."

But Canadian Forces spokesman Col. Jay Janzen said Russia's "lack of respect for the sovereignty of its neighbours," including Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, has created an atmosphere of distrust.

"It's not about exercises per se, or Exercise Zapad 2017," Janzen said. "It's about the climate that Russia has created over the past number of years with regards to its actions on the world stage."

The fact Russia has largely barred international observers from watching the Zapad exercise except in an extremely limited way has only exacerbated that those concerns.

Canada and Russia are among several dozen countries that have signed an international agreement that requires any military exercise involving more than 13,000 soldiers be open to outside observers.

But while NATO estimates that between 60,000 and 100,000 soldiers will be involved in Zapad, Russia says it is running several exercises concurrently, all of which will contain fewer than 13,000 troops.

Russia has said it will host a handful of foreign observers during one day of the exercise. But they will be limited on what they can see and do, which NATO says falls far short of Moscow's legal requirements.

That has sparked complaints from the alliance as well as countries like Canada.

"All nations have the right to exercise their forces, but nations should also respect their commitments to transparency," said the NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive details.

"Predictability and transparency are especially important when there is increased military activity along our borders to reduce risks and avoid any miscalculations, misperceptions or incidents."