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The Russian navy is about to conduct its largest -- and essentially first -- long-range deployment into the North Atlantic since the end of the Cold War. Russia announced Aug. 24 that its warships, including a combat aircraft carrier group, had arrived in the area of the exercises in the North Atlantic and will conduct maneuvers for several days.
Russian surface ships and aircraft will operate close to NATO's traditional vital lines of communications. The location of the exercises is meant to remind Washington that Moscow is still a force to be reckoned with and that Russia can project power far from home. These exercises are also militarily important; they provide for complex training in a close-to-combat situation -- training that is long overdue to the Russian navy, which has seen significant decay and technical catastrophes, and mostly has been confined to its bases since the Soviet Union's end.
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