JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, all this
week in the vast expanse of
Siberia, Russian military forces

have been conducting the largest
war games in a generation.

As Nick Schifrin reports,
the exercises are as
much about projecting
power as demonstrating

it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Russia's far
east, the troops are on parade
and the tanks extend as far

as the eye can see.

Not since the Soviet era has
the Russian military showed off
this much weaponry and tried to

convince the world not only
the Russians are coming, but
they have already arrived, with

sound and fury.

Short-range ballistic missiles
fired at a hypothetical
enemy, an all-out assault from

the ground and air simulating
conventional war, soldiers
rappelling from helicopters,

as if they were
launching an invasion.

The Russian Navy flooded the
Bering Sea that separates Russia
from Alaska, and ships launch

cruise missiles at
hypothetical enemy boats.

All hailed as proof a military
that, 15 years ago, was
depleted and demoralized can now

mobilize what the Russians
claim is their largest exercise
since the Cold War, said

Russian President
Vladimir Putin.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian
President (through translator):
Our duty to the homeland is to

be ready to defend
the sovereignty, the
security and the national
interests of our country.

MICHAEL KOFMAN, Center
for Naval Analyses: They
sound very impressive
to a domestic audience,

because they make it seem like,
well, Russia is a great power
that in many ways has been

restored in terms of
military capability.

And they also sound very
impressive to foreign
audiences, right?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Kofman
is a senior research scientist
at the Center for Naval

Analyses.

He says the exercise isn't
only to improve Russian
deployment and coordination.

It's also about increasing what
he calls coercive diplomacy
against other countries.

MICHAEL KOFMAN: If you want to
push people around leveraging
the military power that

you have, the threat of
force, but that's where
the force has to be seen.

People have to believe it.

It's got to be made credible.

And, of course, the
bigger, more exaggerated
it seems, potentially,
the better your course

of diplomacy.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And the
diplomacy of this exercise
is all about China.

Those are Chinese troops and
Chinese helicopters integrated
into a simulated Russian attack.

The two militaries have
worked together before, but
never this high-profile.

And never before has a Chinese
president participated.

At a nearby economic forum, Xi
Jinping and Putin showed off
their relationship and cooking

skills.

They made Russian pancakes
with a healthy dollop of
caviar, washed down with vodka.

Xi rarely conducts
public diplomacy.

And, watching themselves,
the two were at
times self-conscious.

But at a moment when the U.S.
is talking about great power
competition, China tied itself

to Russia.

XI JINPING, Chinese President
(through translator):
We will continue to
make joint efforts to

consolidate our
traditional friendship,
enhance our comprehensive
cooperation, and push the

China-Russia relationship
up to a new height.

MICHAEL KOFMAN: The two are
increasingly demonstrating
something very important.

They don't see each
other as a threat, but
they are responding
to a shared about that

they perceive in
the United States.

And it's important to understand
that alliances between classical
powers, great powers, they're

not made out of love, affection
or trust, or even -- or even
mutual appearances making

pancakes.

They're made in response
to a larger threat.

And that larger threat is very
clearly the United States.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The West
considers Russia increasingly
hostile, the 2014 annexation
of Crimea, ongoing

battles by Russian-backed
separatists in Eastern
Ukraine, and the Russian
military intervention

in Syria that saved
President Bashar al-Assad.

In response, the U.S. has
deployed more troops to Europe
than at any time since the Cold

War.

Just this week,
NATO jets practiced
intercepting Russian jets.

It's a sign that NATO is
more united against Russia,
NATO's secretary-general,
Jens Stoltenberg,

said today in Washington

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO
Secretary-General:
Because we see a more
assertive Russia investing

in modern capabilities,
that's the reason why
NATO has implemented the
biggest reinforcement

of our collective defense.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Analysts
believe Russia doesn't
want confrontation with
the West, but it wants

the world to believe that it
can exert force and frighten,
with a little help from their

friends.

For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Nick Schifrin.