Pepe Escbar interviewed

U.S. tanks parade through Eastern Europe in bizarre PR stunt

American troops are returning to their base in Germany after NATO military drills in the Baltics. 

The vehicles are usually transported by rail but U.S. commanders decided to drive the convoy all the way from training grounds in Estonia, Lithuania and Poland to a base in Germany. 

The ride kicked off on Saturday and will take more than a week. The troops are scheduled to make stops along the way, to boast their heavy metal to the locals. 

The drills themselves involved 750 US army tanks, helicopters and other military vehicles and around 3,000 US troops. But it's Russian military drills within Russia's own borders which raised more concern. 

Why? We asked Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar