Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces, Riho Terras claimed that last September, Russia military simulated a full scale war against the NATO. The military drill conducted between 14-20 military officers displayed a fictional scenario of Russia engaging the US led alliance.
According to the Russian military, the drill was a scenario to simulate attacks by militant.
Riho Terras claimed in a German newspaper interview, Bild, he said-
Let me be clear: with the exercise Zapad 2017, Russia simulated a large-scale military attack against Nato. It was not targeted towards the Baltic states only, as it was a theatre-wide series of exercises spanning from high North to the Black Sea.
The scale and extent of the entire exercise was far greater than officially stated.
Though the report claimed that 12,700 troops were involved in the drill, but another 12,000 participated near the Estonian borders, and 10,000 in the area near the north of Finland and Norway.
A Cold War-era treaty demands that when drills involves more than 13,000 personnels, an observer should be present, so on the first day of the drill,NATO sent one observer to the area of the military drill, and two obeservers were sent on visitors day in Belarus.
The Russians practised taking over neutralising or taking under control air fields and harbours as well as simulating bombings of “critical infrastructure” such as “air fields, harbours, energy supplies” in Western Europe.