Is Vlad Nostalgic For The Cold War?

Russia engages in joint military exercises with Belarus?

Wait: are we regressing here?

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-belarus-plan-joint-military-drills-february-lukashenko-2022-01-17/

From the article:  MOSCOW, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Russian military forces and hardware began arriving in ex-Soviet Belarus for joint drills starting in February, Minsk said on Monday, amid soaring tensions between East and West over Ukraine.

The “Allied Resolve” exercises will be held near Belarus’s western rim, the borders of NATO members Poland and Lithuania, and its southern flank with Ukraine, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said.

“Set an exact date and let us know, so we aren’t blamed for massing some troops here out of the blue, as if we are preparing to go to war,” he told top military officials.

Troop movements by Russia are being closely scrutinised as a military buildup near Ukraine’s borders and a barrage of threatening rhetoric have stirred Western fears that Russia is planning to invade. read more

Moscow denies any such plan, but has used the standoff to campaign for security guarantees from the West, including a halt to NATO expansion and a formal veto on Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, ever joining the military alliance. – article

If you click on that Ukraine link, you’ll find an article regarding cyber attacks.

Well, now, if Vlad says it ain’t anything but “exercises”, and Lukashenko echoes that, doesn’t it mean that they are quite sincerely just doing practice drills? After all, Vlad didn’t send armed aid to Kazakhstan until Almahty asked for it, owing to all the kerfuffles going on there, and that should settle that, right? Right?

There’s also Cuba and Venezuela to worry about, and Peskov, at the Kremlin, had something to say, as well:   The Kremlin said separately that reports that Estonia was prepared to host up to 5,000 NATO troops showed that Moscow was right to be worried.

“It’s exactly things like that which prove we have grounds to be concerned and it proves we’re ot the reason for escalating tensions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. – article

I’m sure they’re all a bit nostalgic for the Good Old Days when the Kremlin ruled that part of the world….