if you are average people you may get
the answer that yes they can feel the
future we are all implementing the
biggest reinforcement to our collective
defense since the end of the Cold War
clearly the actions that we see indicate
that we need to be ready we're here in
Poland did an incredibly tense moment in
Europe this week the United States
announced plans with heavy weaponry into
Eastern Europe and the Baltic States and
Russia has evaluated by threatening to
move nuclear capable missiles to the
Polish border
Pollan shares its border with the
Russian Federation
however it's not mainland Russia but the
small heavily armed territory of
Kaliningrad over the years
Kaliningrad has frequently been the site
of Russian military exercises today
Poland is on the front line in the new
standoff between NATO and Russia
so we are here near the border with
Russian territory in April Poland
announced that it was going to build six
watchtowers like this along its 200
kilometer border with Kaliningrad the
Polish border agency says the project
has been in the works for a while but
the timing is definitely significant
because a month earlier Russia
threatened to move nuclear capable
missiles to Kaliningrad and they would
be capable of hitting Warsaw
skills really like old-school you know
it feels very cold war sort of spy
thriller to just build massive
watchtowers near the Russian border so
basically there are cameras at the top
of this watchtower and they're just
feeding information back to you at the
control center right doctor some
questions instead of Amazon's an
automatic to let some dope Suribachi
take pajamas out of no of Jeanne Eve not
sir obviously it was in April that
Poland announced these towers were gonna
be built and that was shortly after
Russia threatened to move nuclear
capable missiles just over the border
here or the watchtowers linked to that
threat to our Chapel to the name of
approval
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so we are approaching the Polish border
with Kaliningrad Russia has got its
Baltic Fleet here it's got air bases
here and in the last year the Kremlin
has been pouring money and personnel
into the region and the Baltic States
worried that if Russia were to move
forces into Europe it would use
Kaliningrad as a point of attack where
the ashphalt ends there is is Russian
Federation territory took a selfie cause
World War 3
I'm getting some very dirty up to 7
million people across the pole in
Kaliningrad border each year through
heavily man checkpoints we went to the
Posada border crossing to meet its
border chief this pavilion controller
ski to take control of the conversation
oh I get points for from
Zion documented tell me Nikita Michelle
Petrosky do you have a plan in place for
what you do if a sort of Ukraine style
scenario happened here if little green
man started to approach the border post
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if there was some sort of conflict
between Poland and Russia with this
border be locked down right away
Pauline tack yes we do I am back east
watch especially Cady Kovac is a leakage
stone granite sir towards the end of our
time with the border guards it became
clear that they'd grown tired of us
asking questions about Russia
we wanted to find out how the Polish
population feels about the threat of
Russian military activity in the region
so we're on our way to a national park
in Lublin province where a couple of
different militia groups are getting
together for a weekend exercise since
Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula
last year a lot of Polish people have
signed up for these volunteer
paramilitary groups with the idea that
they could defend their country in the
event of an invasion in the early hours
of the exercise we hiked into the
national park or paramilitary commanders
were plotting their attack so basically
we've got a couple different
paramilitary groups here so one is
playing the defending Polish forest and
the other foreign terrorists the main
reason for making training is to make
people to get used to the real
conditions do you think that in real
life this part of Poland is under threat
who knows might be might be if you are
the average people closer the eastern
border of Polish if they feel the fear
you may get the answer that yes they can
feel the fury
we moved into the middle of the forest
where the militias had set up a
battlefield and mobilized their BB guns
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their task is to find out those guys who
plays the role of terrorists and green
people so like those guys over there
looking after a little green man
yeah like Russia no they don't look like
Russians these guys are about to go and
attack the Polish defenders we were just
with
so a lot of these guys are really
enthusiastic about running forward but
if this were a real conflict and they
are running into bullet a lot of them
would be dropping dead right now
last year the Polish Ministry of
Defense's said that it wants to better
incorporate militias into the regular
Polish army and they've sent a general
to observe today's exercise how many
people in Poland have signed up for
these volunteer militias I think that at
the end of this year maybe next year we
achieve about 100,000 civilian members
of different organizations our Minister
of Defense supports very much the idea
that Polish paramilitary organizations
could support defense system how much of
that you think is motivated by the
situation in Ukraine for sure some
impact of course is very clear but we
don't think that the Russia is the
threat military threat for us today we
should be ready and prepared it's true I
mean a lot of people joined militias in
Ukraine when conflict broke out there
and the government supported those
militias but in recent months they've
had some trouble in the militias of sort
of got out of control in certain areas
is that something that you'd worry about
the picture is absolutely different why
because they didn't have well prepared
troops there Army Armed Forces nowadays
is very clear was frankly speaking very
weak
[Music]
in the wake of events in Ukraine NATO
has turned its attention to countries
that border the Russian Federation last
September the Alliance announced that it
would create a 5,000 strong spearhead
force that is capable of deploying
across the continent within 48 hours of
a military assault we traveled to zackin
in western Poland where NATO is bringing
together the Rapid Reaction Force for
the first time several thousand troops
from nine countries the development has
drawn criticism from Russia which in
December explicitly listed NATO as a
major threat to Moscow
through here at the stage in ground
troops are just getting ready to start
the exercise this will be the first test
of NATO's new Rapid Reaction spearhead
force
kind of weird this is like a massive
show there are hundreds of soldiers here
to watch there's a guy of the
loudspeaker sort of narrating the the
events feels like a bit of a circus
according to the premise of the NATO
exercise Poland and the Baltic states
are under threat from the fictional
state of Bosnia a master of both
conventional and hybrid warfare what do
we know about the enemies for today's
exercise the fictional enemies they are
organized in some way because they have
a different command post set up at the
range and there's also an a troops base
with some regular forces so it's a mix
of different types of play enemies
Secretary General of NATO has to survive
to instruct his troop
a bit of a media storm here there's just
a soldiers and also journalists crowding
around the secretary-general we're
hoping he'll give us an interview
pretory general it's very nice to meet
you so the major news this week is that
America has plans to send heavy weaponry
into Eastern Europe and the Baltics
don't you think that's a provocative
move no what we are now doing is that we
are increasing our ability to reinforce
our forces I think that's important but
Russia has already said that if the
American plan goes forward it will move
missiles to the Polish border so it
seems to me that Russia has already been
provoked but you know the starting point
here is that Russia is responsible for
using force to annex a part of other
country in Europe Graeme Jana which they
have illegally annexed and then in
addition Russia is supporting the
separatists in eastern Ukraine and
destabilizing Ukraine right to that end
when Russian forces seized Crimea NATO
effectively did nothing so I wonder
looking back if you regret that decision
what we did was that we and we have
since then supported Ukraine both
politically and with practical support
and will continue to do so but in
addition we decided to increase the
readiness and preparedness all forces so
we are now implementing the biggest
reinforcements rather collective defense
since the end of the Cold War now we've
arrived at a situation when NATO and
Russia are doing rival exercises
effectively on each other's doorsteps it
seems as if diplomacy has failed and I
wonder how NATO let the situation get to
this point
I very much believe that there is no
contradiction between a strong defence
and dialogue we don't see confrontation
with Russia but then Russia has to
respect the borders of its neighbors and
that's exactly what Russia didn't do in
Ukraine
so it's quite significant that Johnson
being used in this exercise we've seen
the last few months is that Russian Jets
have started moving into European
airspace there have been a lot of close
incidents where European Jets have to be
scrambled to go and intercept Russian
Jets and a scores him out of European
airspace this is a good time to cover
your ears
quickly the exercise kicked off
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all right so it looks like that special
operations forces are moving into the
house and taking over
for hours masses of weaponry was paraded
across an empty field and it started to
feel more like NATO showing off its toys
than a real military exercise meant to
counter hybrid warfare all along NATO
officials were cagey whenever we brought
up Russia it just seems kind of funny
because no one here will really say the
word Russia and yet it seems so patently
obvious that bothnia is meant to be
Russia the thing is that this is not
only about Russia a lot of press at the
moment is talking about is there going
to be a new Cold War is there going to
be a new arms race but the press plays
in a very important role in that so do
you think we the media were
fear-mongering
some yeah sure you're doing this
exercise on Russia's border could I not
argue that in fact if NATO that's that's
fear-mongering the time of being passive
and standing by there's no more time for
Internet there has been this readiness
action plan to make sure different
threats are being dealt with you know
being countries
also watching the exercise was the
American general Philip Breedlove NATO's
supreme Allied commander we wanted to
ask the general about the threat Russia
poses to the region in the last year
some leaders from Poland and the Baltic
States have said that they are
vulnerable to an attack by Russia do you
agree with that assessment well right
now we don't see any imminent threat but
clearly the actions that we see indicate
that we need to be ready let's take for
instance this exercise we announce it
well in advance who is going to be
participating how big it is when it
starts when it ends this is all public
knowledge what we see on the other side
of course is snap exercises large
formations and at least twice in the
last year or so that formation is turned
into an evasion force that went across
an internationally recognized border and
changed borders by force
to that end some leaders again in Poland
in the Baltic States have a summated of
permanently stationed NATO troops in
their countries why has NATO chosen not
to do that well we have been asking this
question for some time our senior most
leaders came to the conclusion that the
model we would use is rotational
persistent forces heel-to-toe
back-to-back but rotational forces and
not permanently Ford stationed forces
the presence of these exercises like
this are getting the job done now if our
senior most leaders decide to go to a
different model in the next summit then
we'll move to that model
as we left the military base
negotiations over the stationing of
heavy weaponry in Poland continued
beyond Poland NATO and Russia continue
to host rival military exercises and
tensions across Europe continue to rise
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