MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax-AVN) - A detachment of a motorized rifle brigade from the Leningrad Military District will take part in the tactical exercise in Sweden, Colonel Igor Konashenkov, assistant to Russian Land Forces commander-in-chief, told Interfax-Military News Agency Wednesday.
"Exercise Snowflake 2006 will be organized at the premises of the 19th infantry regiment of the Swedish Royal Armed Forces," Konashenkov said.
Russian and Swedish servicemen will refine skills of conducting a joint peacekeeping operation. "For instance, they will escort automobile convoys with humanitarian aid and provide their security, as well as deploy checkpoints," he said.
"Russian servicemen will not take their weapons to Sweden, and use standard small arms and other weapons of the Swedish army during the exercise," Konashenkov added.
He also said that the exercise will start on Thursday and end on January 26. "Leningrad Military District deputy commander Lieutenant General Vyacheslav Sukharev will attend the active phase of the exercise in Sweden, slated for January 24-26," he said.
The Leningrad Military District's press service chief Colonel Yury Klenov told Interfax-AVN that the units of the district have taken active part in joint tactical exercises of foreign armies for the purpose of interoperability.
"In 2005, for example, over 50 joint operations under the mil-to-mil cooperation plan we held. It is common viewpoint that direct mil-to-mil contacts between units of foreign armies are the best way of strengthening military ties in the region," he said.