Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with local officials in Omsk, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with local officials in Omsk, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with local officials in Omsk, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (Associated Press) Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with local officials in Omsk, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin's spokesman says China's participation in major military exercises in Russia next month demonstrates growing connections between Moscow and Beijing. 
 
 The war games in central and eastern Russia, which are billed as the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union, will involve about 300,000 Russian troops. China's state Xinhua news agency has reported China plans to send 3,200 troops and about 900 weapons units. 
 
 President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday that "it indicates the broadening of interaction between these two allies in all spheres." 
 
 Last week, military units in the east were put on a state of high alert in preparation for the games. The Defense Ministry on Monday released video of cruise missile tests by the Pacific Fleet in the Sea of Okhotsk. 

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption A Russian howitzer: Military modernisation is a priority for President Putin 
 
 Russia plans to hold massive war games involving 300,000 personnel next month - its biggest military manoeuvres since a Cold War drill in 1981. 
 
 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Vostok-2018 drills were justified given "aggressive and unfriendly" attitudes towards his country. 
 
 Units from China and Mongolia will also take part in the exercises at military ranges in central and eastern Russia. 
 
 The manoeuvres come at a time of rising tension between Nato and Russia. 
 
 What will take place in the drills? 
 
 Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said 36,000 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and armoured infantry vehicles would take part in Vostok-2018, from 11 to 15 September, along with more than 1,000 aircraft. Vostok is Russian for east. 
 
 All of Russia's airborne units and two of its naval fleets will also take part in the drills across Siberia and the Russian Far East. 
 
 Mr Shoigu compared the Vostok-2018 exercises to Soviet manoeuvres in 1981, which involved a pretend attack on Nato. He said: "In some ways they will repeat aspects of Zapad-81, but in other ways the scale will be bigger." 
 
 Mr Peskov said the involvement of Chinese units showed Russia and Beijing were co-operating in all areas. 
 
 Read more on Russia's military: 
 
 The scale of Vostok-2018 is equivalent to the forces deployed in one of the big World War Two battles. 
 
 A smaller-scale Russia-Belarus exercise was held in western regions last year. 
 
 President Vladimir Putin has made military modernisation - including new nuclear missiles - a priority. 
 
 Russia's armed forces are reckoned to have about one million personnel in total. 
 
 How and why will China be involved? 
 
 The Chinese defence ministry put out a fairly dry statement talking of deepening military co-operation and "enhancing both sides' capabilities to jointly respond to various security threats". 
 
 But it did say the exercises would "not target any third party". 
 
 The ministry also confirmed the extent of the Chinese involvement - "3,200 troops, more than 900 pieces of military hardware as well as 30 fixed-wing aircrafts and helicopters" - and confirmed the location - the Tsugol training range in Russia's Trans-Baikal region. Some of the forces have already arrived. 
 
 Details of the Mongolian involvement are unclear. 
 
 Giant exercise, giant bill 
 
 Analysis by the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow 
 
 The scale and scope of Vostok-2018 is unprecedented for modern Russia, but no surprise. The giant drill is clearly meant as a show of strength by Vladimir Putin and his military, a demonstration that - despite Western sanctions, including against the defence sector - the country remains defiant. 
 
 It's also a reminder that while Russia is seen as a hostile and aggressive force in the West, Moscow has long seen Nato encroachment as the threat. President Putin's spokesman argued that Vostok was essential, in what he called a "very aggressive and unfriendly" international context. 
 
 It's how he defended the presumably giant bill for such a giant event, too, at a time when Russians are protesting furiously against a reform of the pension system they're told is critical, because social spending is unsustainable as it stands. 
 
 What has Nato said? 
 
 Spokesman Dylan White said Nato was briefed on Vostok-2018 in May and would monitor it. 
 
 He said the organisation was considering a Russian offer to allow Nato military attachés based in Moscow to be sent to observe the drills. 
 
 He said in a statement: "All nations have the right to exercise their armed forces, but it is essential that this is done in a transparent and predictable manner." 
 
 He added: "Vostok demonstrates Russia's focus on exercising large-scale conflict. It fits into a pattern we have seen over some time: a more assertive Russia, significantly increasing its defence budget and its military presence." 
 
 Why is Russia-Nato tension high? 
 
 It has been increasing since Russia annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backed pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Navy Day in St Petersburg last month 
 
 Nato has reacted with an increased deployment of forces in eastern Europe, sending 4,000 troops to member nations. 
 
 Russia says the Nato build-up is unjustified and provocative. 
 
 The poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in southern England in March did not help relations, with Nato expelling Russian diplomats. 
 
 The UK and the US - both Nato members - say Moscow was behind the attack, although Russia denies it. 
 
 President Putin again traded barbs with Nato last week over the alliance's assets near the Russian border. 
 
 Last week, fighter jets of the UK's RAF in Romania were scrambled on two occasions to intercept Russian military aircraft seen heading towards Nato airspace from Crimea. 

 LISTEN TO ARTICLE 2:26 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email 
 
 Russia is to hold its biggest military maneuvers since the height of the Cold War next month, mobilizing about 300,000 troops and including the participation of thousands of soldiers from China, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. 
 
 The Vostok-2018 exercises in Russia’s eastern and central military districts -- spanning from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific coast -- from Sept. 11-15 will involve almost a third of the country’s soldiers, making them the largest since 1981, Shoigu said, according to a ministry press release. Some 1,000 aircraft and both the Northern and Pacific fleets will be deployed. 
 
 “Imagine 36,000 tanks and armored personnel carriers all moving at the same time,” the defense minister said. “This will all be tested under conditions as close as possible to war.” 
 
 Russia stoked alarm a year ago when it staged major war games on its western flank neighboring Poland and the Baltic States that NATO said involved 100,000 troops -- far above the 13,000 soldiers that Russian officials said took part. Next month’s military exercises will be the most ambitious since the “Zapad-81” drills in 1981 staged by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. Chinese and Mongolian forces will also participate. 
 
 “In some ways, these maneuvers repeat Zapad-81, but in others they’re probably even bigger,” Shoigu said. 
 
 China Role 
 
 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the drills were needed to ensure Russia’s military capabilities “in the current international situation, which is often quite aggressive and unfriendly to our country.” 
 
 Vasily Kashin, a senior fellow at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that Kremlin is “preparing for possible conflict” amid the chilliest relations with the U.S. for decades. Such large maneuvers are aimed “partly at showing our preparedness and partly to increase our actual readiness for war. The situation is bad.” 
 
 China, which has steadily tightened ties with Moscow in recent years, will contribute 3,200 troops and 30 aircraft. 
 
 “This is a new step. It’s the first time Chinese forces have been allowed in internal maneuvers, not joint ones,” said Kashin. “For the moment, there’s no sign that Russia and China are preparing a full military alliance, but on the military level, that’s what’s happening.” 
 
 Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the Chinese participation is evidence of “the expansion of cooperation in all areas between two allies.” 
 
 — With assistance by Dandan Li 

 MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will next month hold its biggest war games since the fall of the Soviet Union, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, a massive military exercise that will also involve the Chinese and Mongolian armies. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Commander of Western military district Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov attend the Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg, Russia July 29, 2018. Sputnik/Mikhail Klementyev/Kremlin via REUTERS 
 
 The exercise, called Vostok-2018 (East-2018), will take place in central and eastern Russian military districts and involve almost 300,000 troops, more than 1,000 military aircraft, two of Russia’s naval fleets, and all of its airborne units, Shoigu said in a statement. 
 
 The maneuvers will take place at a time of heightened tension between the West and Russia, which is concerned about what it says is an unjustified build-up of the NATO military alliance on its western flank. 
 
 NATO says it has beefed up its forces in eastern Europe to deter potential Russian military action after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and backed a pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine. 
 
 The war games, which will take place from Sept. 11-15, are likely to worry Japan, which has already complained about a Russian military build-up in the Far East, something Moscow has linked to Tokyo’s roll-out of the Aegis U.S. missile system. 
 
 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to attend a forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok over the same period, and a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday that Tokyo always paid attention to shifts in Russian-Chinese military cooperation. 
 
 Shoigu said the war games would be the biggest since a Soviet military exercise, Zapad-81 (West-81) in 1981. 
 
 “In some ways they will repeat aspects of Zapad-81, but in other ways the scale will be bigger,” Shoigu told reporters, while visiting the Russian region of Khakassia. 
 
 Shoigu said that both Russia’s Pacific and Northern Fleets would take part, while the Russian Ministry of Defense has said that Chinese and Mongolian military units will also participate. 
 
 “A MORE ASSERTIVE RUSSIA” 
 
 Asked if the cost of holding such a massive military exercise was justified at a time when Russia is faced with higher social spending demands, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such war games were essential. 
 
 “The country’s ability to defend itself in the current international situation, which is often aggressive and unfriendly towards our country, means (the exercise) is justified,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call. 
 
 When asked if China’s involvement meant Moscow and Beijing were moving towards an alliance, Peskov said it showed that the two were cooperating in all areas. 
 
 China and Russia have taken part in joint military drills before but not on such a large scale. 
 
 NATO spokesman Dylan White said that Russia had briefed the alliance on the planned exercise in May and that NATO would monitor it. Russia had invited military attaches from NATO countries based in Moscow to observe the war games, an offer he said was under consideration. 
 
 “All nations have the right to exercise their armed forces, but it is essential that this is done in a transparent and predictable manner,” White said in an emailed statement. 
 
 “Vostok demonstrates Russia’s focus on exercising large-scale conflict. It fits into a pattern we have seen over some time: a more assertive Russia, significantly increasing its defense budget and its military presence.” 
 
 Shoigu this month announced the start of snap combat readiness checks in central and eastern military districts ahead of the planned exercise. 
 
 “Imagine 36,000 armored vehicles - tanks, armored personnel carriers and armored infantry vehicles - moving and working simultaneously, and that all this, naturally, is being tested in conditions as close as possible to military ones,” Shoigu said on Tuesday.
– In 1981, the Soviet Union staged a pretend attack on NATO. Nearly 40 years later, Russia will move forward with its biggest war games since. The BBC reports some 300,000 military personnel will participate; that's thought to be a little less than a third of the country's total. The "Vostok-2018" war games ("Vostok" means east) will run from Sept. 11-15 in the central and eastern parts of Russia, covering ground from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific, per Bloomberg. Reuters expects that will ruffle Japan, which has previously expressed concern about Russia's bolstered military presence in the Far East. It'll also mark the biggest military exercise China has participated in with Russia; the AP reports it will send roughly 3,200 troops to take part. A rep for President Vladimir Putin says China's involvement "indicates the broadening of interaction between these two allies in all spheres." "In some ways [the war games] will repeat aspects of Zapad-81," says Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in reference to the 1981 exercises. "But in other ways the scale will be bigger." A rep for NATO says it was informed of the plan in May and will observe the games, but he sounded a note of caution: "Vostok demonstrates Russia’s focus on exercising large-scale conflict. It fits into a pattern we have seen over some time: a more assertive Russia, significantly increasing its defense budget and its military presence."