Reportage
Russia: in Sakhalin, Russia displays its unity with China during military maneuvers
A tank photographed on the first day of the Vostok 2022 maneuvers open to the press, on the island of Sakhalin, September 4, 2022. © Anissa El Jabri, RFI
Text by: Anissa El Jabri Follow
3 mins
Russia has launched its quadrennial maneuvers in the Far East: “Vostok 2022”.
In the 7th month of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Russia is aiming for a show of force with several allied countries, including China.
This Sunday September 4 was the first day open to the press and Moscow chose the island of Sakhalin.
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With our special correspondent in Sakhalin,
Russia's annual maneuvers are held in rotation in the west, center, south and east.
It is precisely in this area that the Russia-China rapprochement is worrying.
With its flat streets lined with two-storey wooden houses as soon as you leave the city center, its roofs often made of sheet metal and its few small shopping centers, Sakhalin remains a destination at the end of the world.
Even for Russians in Vladivostok, the nearest mainland city, the destination is rare and expensive.
On this island, spring and summer last an average of three months.
Early September is therefore the ideal time to organize maneuvers there.
On land, at sea and in the air, we will see 50,000 soldiers this year, six times fewer than in 2018, when an edition with 300,000 Russian soldiers, supported by Chinese and Mongolian contingents, took place.
Except that for these “Vostok 2022” maneuvers, Russia this time displays fourteen allies, including China and India… even if
the latter is uncomfortable
.
Result: despite the Western front and the sanctions, Russia can demonstrate that it is not so isolated as that, and that is the main thing for Moscow.
A message to Japan
The first message delivered by these maneuvers is primarily aimed at Japan.
The country, which has joined in the Western sanctions, knew to expect an increase in military activity in the region.
In fact, since the spring, it hasn't stopped.
This Sunday, the maneuvers take place even at its borders: Sakhalin is separated from Japan by a strait of a few tens of kilometers.
Russia is displayed there in any case for defensive exercises, says the Russian army.
This Sunday's theme: the response to an amphibious attack, combat aircraft and artillery maneuvers.
“
Without succeeding in landing naval troops on the coast in order to disorganize our units at the rear, the enemy nevertheless managed to advance with the air
,” comments battalion commander Nikolai Ivanovitch.
In this area, our units regrouped in the vanguard with the aim of blocking the path of the airborne troops at the main crossroads.
»
Smoke screen several tens of meters high to hide the trajectories of the tanks in the mud, deployment of artillery, including the multiple Hurricane rocket launchers,
widely used in the Donbass
... All in the heat.
A smoke screen photographed on the first day of the Vostok 2022 maneuvers open to the press, on the island of Sakhalin, September 4, 2022. © Anissa El Jabri / RFI
“
This part of the island is in a mountainous and forested valley surrounded by seas.
The humidity is high.
That's why it's hard for me to catch my breath and talk to you
, ”explains the soldier.
Russia and China are demonstrating their naval forces together this weekend.
And the Chinese number three announced it on Sunday: he will be in Russia next week.
The top Communist Party politician to visit the country since Feb. 24 will begin a 10-day visit by the Vladivostok Economic Forum on Wednesday.
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