Nonetheless, six days of action across two dozen training ranges offered plenty to look at. Paradoxically, while Zapad featured a number of dynamic exercises, on the spectrum of training events it is by far the most scripted. Fall may represent the peak, with larger exercises and qualification checks, but it is no longer the main training period for the Russian armed forces. The Russian military’s training regimen has evolved to a year-long set of exercises and events, maintaining relatively high levels of readiness. This is a significantly more visible multinational presence than in previous years. The coalition force participants, while arguably token, now numbered seven countries, and perhaps 2000 troops. The exercise was therefore much more of a joint Russian-Belarusian event, designed to demonstrate Russian capability and willingness to defend its interests in that country. That act is clearly over, as Minsk has been in regime survival mode, more firmly ensconced in Russia’s economic and security sphere of influence than ever before. Prior to 2020, Belarus had always been hesitant to host large Russian formations, hoping to hedge relations between Moscow and Western nations. Russian-Belarusian exercises were far more robust, practicing interoperability as part of a Regional Grouping of Forces, a joint operational-strategic formation that is activated during a time of military threat. Its scope was substantial, involving at least 15 training ranges in Russia, and 6 in Belarus, not including the activities of the Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command. The exercise itself was larger than 2017, with Russian forces deploying to Western regions of Belarus. This year troops deployed two months in advance of the exercise to their assigned training ranges, which made the entire affair even more scripted than before, as troops drilled in the events they were expected to execute in September. It is a meeting engagement between Russian forces in Belarus and a NATO coalition, which expands into a regional war, with strikes against Belarus and the Russian homeland. Zapad-2021 featured largely the same scenario, a coalition of NATO states intervening in Belarus to conduct regime change and wrest a part of the country away. What’s different in 2021 when compared to 2017? In 2021, this exercise returned to much larger scale and duration.
Zapad-2017 proved the subject of sensational media coverage, although nothing particularly nefarious took pace, and the exercise itself was quite smaller than Zapad-2013 or the earlier 2009 iteration. Given the ongoing confrontation between Russia and NATO, intensifying military activity on the part of both sides in Europe, and enduring apprehensions among bordering NATO member states, this exercise in particular draws considerable attention.
There is also a growing military diplomacy component to the exercises, with foreign forces participating in joint training events as part of a coalition. They are not just training events, but serve important signaling functions as prominent display of military capabilities and the willingness to employ it. Such exercises rotate between Russia’s Military Districts, Zapad, Vostok, Tsentr, and Kavkaz. Zapad is traditionally a command-staff exercise which takes place every four years, centered on what the Russian General Staff terms the Western strategic direction. 16 Russia concluded its Joint Strategic Exercise, Zapad-2021, a large military training event focused on the Western Military District and Belarus. In addition to operating its livestreaming platform, Twitch also hosts the TwitchCon community event, which will return with TwitchCon Amsterdam in July 2022 followed by TwitchCon San Diego in October 2022.On Sept. “Jeff Bezos paid $970 million for this, we’re giving it away FOR FREE,” the person who posted the stolen data wrote on 4chan. Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014 for about $970 million. Twitch was launched in 2011 by the co-founders of, one of the first websites to host livestreaming. “This is more of a way to publicly humiliate Twitch and potentially lower the trust the Twitch users may have in the platform and company,” Rhoads-Herrera said.
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But that’s unlikely because any return the attackers would get is minimal and wouldn’t be worth their effort, according to Quentin Rhoads-Herrera, director of professional services at cybersecurity provider Critical Start.
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The leaked Twitch code could potentially be used by malware authors to infect the platform’s userbase by possibly finding flaws in the software. Reached for comment, a Twitch rep said they had no additional information at this point to provide on the incident. Nevertheless, the streaming platform has encouraged some Twitch users to change their passwords, The Verge reported. According to reports, the stolen trove of Twitch data does not appear to include users’ emails, passwords or other personally identifying info.