Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

cise, General Makarov stated that: “First I would note
that this particular exercise, like last years, is not directed
against any concrete nation or military-political
bloc. It has a strictly defense orientation to maintain
security and defense of the state’s national interests
along its Far Eastern borders from a hypothetical enemy.”
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Even a hypothetical opponent has to have some
military capabilities in order to execute acts of aggression,
which bring about the responses of the “red”
defenders in the Russian case. 58 An operational-strategic
exercise is composed of many distinct tactical
vignettes, which are used to test the training of the
forces involved in the exercise. Vostok- 2010 not only
involved air, ground, and naval forces of the Russian
Ministry of Defense but also included forces of
the Internal Troops of the MVD, FSB, Border Guards,
Ministry of Extraordinary Situations, Federal Security
Service (FSO), and Federal Service for Execution of
Punishments (FSIN). 59 Its scale was quite large in terms
of troops, equipment, and the number of training areas
in Siberia and the Far East that were involved. When
asked about the opponent that drove these vignettes,
General Makarov replied:
We did not look at any particular country and did not
look at any particular enemy. We are talking about
what direction we will create our own operationalstrategic
situation in the course of which somewhere
a group of terrorists or large group of separatists are
active, which is quite characteristic for low-intensity
conflicts. For instance we selected such scenarios. But
by quantity—here a brigade, there a battalion, here a
small groups of warships. I will say once again, we
did not attempt to assemble huge forces and means in
any district. We want to look at the capacity of execut-
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