What were Russia and NATO up to when they conducted large-scale military exercises over the past year? A report published Wednesday ignores bland official explanations and concludes, based on what moved where during the two maneuvers, that each was preparing for invasion by the other.
That shouldn't be too alarming: practicing for a contingency doesn't mean it is either planned or inevitable. Yet the risk of escalation is real.
A Russian exercise in March, involving 80,000 troops, 65 ships and 220 aircraft, practiced a response to how Russia believes NATO might attack: from the Arctic to the Pacific, with Crimea, the exposed enclave of Kaliningrad, and Russia's border with Estonia and Latvia between.