(New York Times) In Russia, the fog of war seems to be more than just a reference to confusion. Fog was central to the plan for a three-day military exercise that began on Wednesday, during which the restricted-access northern city of Severomorsk disappeared beneath a dense layer of artificial smoke and fumes.
The Northern Fleet, a pillar of Russia’s ambition for a more robust military presence in the Arctic, announced the exercise in a statement on Tuesday. It involved stationary and mobile fog machines at the local naval base, which serves as the Northern Fleet’s headquarters. […]
The exercise comes on the heels of the recent Russian military expansion in the Arctic region, a process that Pavel K. Baev, a professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, describes as “a one-sided arms race.”
