Where will Russian tanks go

Russian tank units are calmly located in Central Poland. Such a shocking conclusion could be made by looking at the map reflecting the latest news about the movements of the Russian troops. No, the war, fortunately, did not begin, and even the international scandal did not follow: it was about the lining that occurred in the first hours of the Finnish project of the Russian Military Watch (RMW) . It was able to quickly eliminate it, and since the authors of the project claim, their site reflects the activity of the Russian military quite adequately.

What can you find out by studying RMW data? Well, for example, the fact that the Air Force regiment near Kursk was set up by new Su-30SM super-farmers . Or the fact that the sailors of the Caspian flotilla conducted exercises with artillery shooting and the clearance of the water area. Or draw up a general picture on the geography of maneuvers, movements and incidents in the units and units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation over the past 10 days:

Officially Publined Activity in Last 10 Days (Dupes, Falses and All) In Russian Armed and Security Forces. Pretty Western Orientation, EH. pic.twitter.com/0z3reg2pgq

- Aki Heikkinen (@akihheikkinen) September 29, 2017

We are not talking about intelligence, or even a completely professional project. Nevertheless, in Finland and beyond, he attracted attention. After all, for the Western neighbors of Russia, for obvious reasons, interest in the activities of the Russian military is combined with concern about this.

One of its creators - Aki Hakekinen : about the Russia Military Watch project.

- How did you come to the idea of such a site? Are you professionally dealing with security and defense policy?

- No, I work in the IT field. For me, these questions are a kind of hobby. But for my project partner, Andreas Turunen is the scope of his professional interests. It came to us the idea of making a geolocation system that would monitor the movements of the Russian troops - in accordance with messages from the Russian sources themselves.

- How does it work if described in an embedded language for not devoted to the intricacies of it? What sources of information do you use?

We rely on Russian sources, not the sources of any third side

- Mostly official - for example, the website of the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Our geolocation analyzes and fixes those places that are mentioned in Russian messages and where, according to these data, certain movements of the troops, maneuvers, incidents (like what happened recently at the training ground near St. Petersburg ) occur. All this is applied to our card. We also translate into English text messages and place them next to the map. True, the translation is still mechanical, so sometimes quite funny texts are obtained. And yes, I emphasize once again: we rely on Russian sources, not sources of any third party.

- What is the meaning of such a project?

- First of all, to show the rest of the world, which is how the Russian side reports on its military activity. For the most part, this information is not translated into foreign languages, so we help those interested in overcome the language barrier. In addition, this is a comprehensive visual illustration of what is happening - or at least the fact that the Russians themselves want to report this. At the same time, we understand that Russian official data can be incomplete and not always accurate - in this sense, Russia is not for the better from some other countries. Although for the military sphere, of course, the share of secrecy is natural.

S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems on exercises in Buryatia

Specialists of RSB Protection of Air Defense Forces Disguise S-300 Sam in Course of Exercise in Buryatia https:t.co/lclrhzgqym pic.twitter.com/7tyq8kibo2

- Russiamilitarywatch (@russiamilitaryw) September 27, 2017

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-How did you track the recently ended large exercises of the West-2017 in Belarus and some regions of Russia?

- Of course, in the framework of our capabilities, we followed what was happening very actively. But, again, I repeat, our monitoring is primarily a set of messages that appeared in open Russian sources. All interested ones can use information from other sources and compare both. As for the “West-2017”, it seems to me that our system worked it well, given that we are just starting, and there are still enough different technical “flies”.

- What about the fact of facts? You do not try to compare the statements of the Russian military department with what is really happening? Perhaps there are serious inconsistencies?

- At this stage, we leave this to our readers. We understand, we know from experience that Russian official sources are much more closed than, say, NATO. Russia Military Watch does not claim to display a complete and objective picture of what the Russian armed forces are doing. It is rather a reproduction of what the Russian military machine itself presented by this picture. The full picture can be obtained by combining different sources.

The scientific and practical conference on the development of missile and artillery weapons ended in Sevastopol

Scientific-Practical Conference Devoted to Development of Rocket and Artillery Weapons Was Completed in Sevast https://t.co/kqxeivu6bp pic.twitter.com/s7yntn6tm2

- Russianamilitarywatch (@russiamilitaryw) September 29, 2017

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- But in this case, you, apparently, deserve gratitude to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation! After all, they have the right to say: what good guys are distributing our information in the West. Isn't it?

- I don't think so. First of all, the most information they have issued are focused on the internal, Russian audience. There are some details that they are unlikely to be widely published in front of a foreign public, especially if we are talking, as in our case, about a regularly updated combined picture of military exercises, movements, etc. We are fully aware that the official information of the Russian military can be trusted only limited. And we warn about this. Moreover, judging by the first weeks of our work, our audience is international, which we counted on, launching the project - it focuses not only on Finland.

-Are you going to somehow expand? Maybe add analysts to your project, links to alternative sources, attract new authors?

- Yes, there are such plans. I would not yet spread about them in more detail, but we will develop. So far, we “run up” RMW in the current form, and then make the project more diverse. Moreover, we are satisfied with attendance, there is interest in our site, including from representatives of professional security communities, from European countries, the USA and Canada.

- And for your country, Finland, the military capabilities of Russia - is the relevant topic? Among the Finns is the idea of the possibility of Russian aggression a common?

We “woke up” only after the Crimea, and not after the war in Georgia. But this is not bad

- I would say this: Finland learned to live next to Russia, but, it seems to me, we never trusted her to the end. This lasts decades. When all of Europe in the last twenty years has been actively disarmed, Finland only insignificantly reduced defense costs. I do not think that we feel a direct threat, but in our defense policy there have been many changes over the past three years. Unfortunately, we “woke up” only after Crimea, and not after the war in Georgia. But this is not bad. We are still not members of NATO, and our government did not apply for joining this union. But in the country there is an active discussion that, if the situation will deteriorate, it is worth submitting such an application. In addition, Finland has recently cooperated in the military field with Sweden , the United States and Great Britain - as part of the regional rapid deployment forces JEF , ”says one of the authors of the Russian Military Watch project, Aka Heikkinen.