NATO recreates project STAY-BEHIND

The Iron Sword 2016 war games began on November 20th and will last until December 3rd. Approximately 4,000 troops from Estonia, Latvia, Great Britain, Canada, Poland, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia, and Germany are going to participate in these exercises.

The participation of volunteer groups is of particular interest. This project is in some ways reminiscent of the secret NATO operations carried out in the 1970’s-80's in Western Europe. All these cases involved the creation of illegal paramilitary groups that were supposed to be mobilized in the case of a "communist victory" or “Soviet invasion.” However, some of these secret organizations went out of control and committed serious crimes against the citizens of their own countries. Some attempts at investigation yielded no results.

Earlier this year, Poland decided to create volunteer self-defense units which have already received the name "rural commandos."