Zapad: What can we learn from Russia's latest military exercise?

Igor Sutyagin, the senior research fellow for Russian studies at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) think tank in London, describes this as an attempt to create "a lean, fully manned, combat-ready force, fully - or to the best possible extent - equipped with the up-to-date equipment [and] supported by agile rear infrastructure".