Vladimir Putin announces military drills

The Ministry of Defense announced surprise drills of combat readiness for the Armed Forces; affected are the Southern, Western and Central Military District, as well as the Northern Fleet and the main commands bases and the VDV, the Minister of Defense, said Army General Sergei Shoigu.

"Today, in accordance with the decision of the supreme commander of the armed forces of another sudden inspection started. The troops of the Southern part of the forces and means of the Western and Central military districts, the Northern Fleet, the High Command of Air Space Forces, command of the Airborne Troops from 07.00 MSK are on Full Alert", announced Shoigu at a meeting with senior agency staff.

The head of the Defense Ministry said that the inspections would allow, in particular, to assess the ability of the West and Central military districts to increase efforts in the south-western strategic direction. Monitoring the military action will be two working groups of the General Staff.

Testing will take place from the 25th to 31st of August. The minister directed that the attaches of foreign countries are to be informed of the military exercises.

At the same time, according to Shoigu, the Southern Military District is actively preparing for strategic exercises "Caucasus-2016" is a complex command and staff training.

"The bodies of military administration, military units and formations of combat, special and logistic support during the 12 specific exercises, are aimed at working out issues early deployment of the system of comprehensive support for the troops.", the minister said.