NATO Wants Right to Perform Surprise Inspections of Russian Military Drills

According to a diplomatic source, NATO is attempting to seek permission through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to do “surprise inspections” on Russian military exercises.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – NATO is attempting to seek permission through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to do “surprise inspections” on Russian military exercises that NATO believes have become larger and taking place more often, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.

“Snap Russian military drills are often a surprise for NATO and this is why the alliance wants to go through the OSCE so that it gets Russia to preliminarily announce its exercises and as well as the size [of the exercises] so as to create a mechanism for ‘surprise inspections,’” the source told RIA Novosti.

On Monday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that Europe want to create a “regime of snap checks of snap exercises” to increase the level of predictability of military activity.