CIS Ghost Military Exercises

On October 26, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the start of CIS united air defense system military exercises. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the aviation of the Armenian Armed Forces also participated in the military exercises.

The Russian ministry website mentions that around 100 planes and helicopters of the fighter aircrafts of the armed forces of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were involved in the military exercises.

However, there was no information about the joint military exercises in the websites of the Ministries of Defense of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The RA Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan told us that if there are no press releases, then Armenia simply did not participate in such military exercises. And the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service refused to comment on the issue.

However, in response to our written enquiry, the RA Ministry of Defense confirmed the participation of the RA Armed Forces in the military exercises. However, this letter of the Defense Ministry gives rise to new questions.

In particular, according to the ministry, “The RA AF air defense troops and aviation units participated in the given military exercises, within the framework of which issues of preventing and excluding violations of the state border, assisting aircraft in force majeure situations, as well as banning flights of aircraft that will violate flight rules were addressed.

But as it is known, the Armenian air force does not have fighter aircraft. In other words, the Armenian air force does not have a single plane that would be able to target other planes. Such kinds of issues are dealt exclusively by the air defense troops and the air force does not have anything to do here (the latter only assist the ground troops).

Hence, the letter confirming the participation of the RA Armed Forces in the CIS military exercises contains information diverging from reality… And this gives grounds to put into doubt that letter and Armenia’s participation in the aforementioned military exercises, especially taking into consideration the circumstance that the Russian side “would not like it” if the Armenian Ministry of Defense issued a written statement on the disinformation spread by the Russian defense agency.

In this scenario, it becomes clear why the RA Defense Ministry spokesperson denied Armenia’s participation in those military exercises.

It is worth reminding that recently we have revealed other fake information related to Armenia and spread by the Russian Defense Ministry.