Russia and NATO Hold Dual Drills 150 Miles Apart in Balkans

A map showing the approximate location of drills by Russia (in red) and NATO (in blue). Google Maps

This week's stage Serbia and Montenegro were once part of Yugoslavia, a communist state briefly allied with the Soviet Union after World War II. Yugoslavia split after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but Serbia and Montenegro remained the same country until they divided following a referendum in 2006.

Serbia is not a member of NATO but has also held drills with the alliance. However, it has maintained some ties with Moscow, and some Serbs also share the Kremlin's bitterness toward the West after a NATO bombing campaign to end the Kosovo War in 1999.

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Meanwhile, Montenegro has moved toward the West and is well on its way to joining the military alliance.

The drills this week were not the first held by Russia and Serbia, nor were they the largest by the former Soviet powerhouse. In September, Moscow said that

But seen through the prism of Montenegro's so-called Westernization, the location of the exercises was likely key.

"I would be very surprised if it was coincidence," according to Tate Nurkin, a defense analyst at global consulting firm IHS. "This is the frontline of the ongoing confrontation."

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For its part, a NATO official claimed that the decision to stage its disaster-relief exercise so close to the Russians was "in no way a provocative exercise." Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told NBC News that it was only about "allies helping allies in a natural disaster."

Sutyagin, the Russian expert at RUSI, disagreed.

Russian and Belarusian servicemen arrive in Serbia on Wednesday. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

"To say it's a disaster-relief exercise is half true," he said. "There are military and non-military elements involved." NATO said the proportion was around 90 percent non-military.

"This sends a message and I think that's the reason for having these drills so close," he added.

Nurkin said that NATO leaders would be all-too conscious of the ramifications of their choice of venue.

"Any time NATO does something in Montenegro, they will know that Russia will be very aware of it," he said. "Moscow is very resentful toward the U.S. for not just allowing the expansion of NATO but encouraging it right up to the Russian border."

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Russia and NATO Hold Dual Drills 150 Miles Apart in Balkans