For decades, Russia has been conducting one major military exercise annually in each of its four main strategic directions on a rotating basis. The outstanding importance of the West among them has not changed. The Zapad (meaning “west”) exercise first took place in 1999. It was held again in 2009 and has taken place every four years since. The last such maneuver, Zapad-2021, was used partially for deploying heavy weaponry and logistics to Belarus, from where these capacities were used against