MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Armed Forces Chief- of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin ordered a Land Forces Command commission to carry out a complex inspection of the 76th airborne division from February 18 to 23, a competent source in the Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The commission comprising 20 people will be led by Lieutenant General Gennady Kotenko, first deputy chief-of-staff of the Land Forces. The commission also involves officials of the General Staff, main political work department and main combat training department of the Armed Forces, as well as representatives of other main and central departments in the ministry.
The main aim of the inspection is to evaluate combat readiness of units of the division, check the manning level and the amount of armament and combat equipment, analyze the state of military discipline and order in the division's units.
The 76th division under command of Major General Stanislav Semenyuta is headquartered in Pskov.
The reason for the inspection is the desertion of two servicemen from the 31st separate airborne brigade stationed in Ulyanovsk. The servicemen went AWOL on February 4 this year and subsequently killed 10 people.
All units and formations of the Airborne Troops are supposed to be checked in March by a commission led by Kvashnin.