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In pictures: Foreign marines descend on Russia

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It's a long way from the Caribbean, the South China Sea and the Gulf but Venezuela, China and Iran landed marines on the Baltic coast this month for a round of war games hosted by Russia, which has fostered defence ties with all three countries.

They showed off their stuff in the sand and water of a test range in the Kaliningrad region.

image copyrightReuters
image captionA Venezuelan marine slogs through water on the Khmelevka range.
image copyrightReuters
image captionOther Venezuelans attempt to leap over barbed wire.
image copyrightReuters
image captionThe Venezuelan corps numbers about 5,000 marines.
image copyrightReuters
image captionForming human ladders poles is all part of the package for the Venezuelans.
image copyrightReuters
image captionChinese marines carry a simulated casualty across a beach.
image copyrightReuters
image caption"Casualties" are delivered into the hands of a Russian medical unit.
image copyrightReuters
image captionFor these Chinese marines, there is a crawl under barbed wire.
image copyrightReuters
image captionThe People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps numbered about 20,000 personnel until recently, but is expected to expand considerably.
image copyrightReuters
image captionIranian marines do some heavy lifting too.
image copyrightReuters
image captionIran is believed to have some 2,600 marines, in addition to naval infantry.
image copyrightReuters
image captionThe marine games are just one part of the International Army Games, which Russia has been organising annually since 2015.

All photos by Vitaly Nevar, copyright of Reuters.

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