VALDIVOSTOK. June 9 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Far East- deployed troops (the Far Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet) are ready for a forthcoming large-scale exercise in the area.
"This was what the Russian Armed Forces chief-of-staff said at a meeting he has conducted in the Pacific Fleet HQ in summary of his inspection of the Far Eastern Military District and Pacific Fleet," a competent source in the Pacific Fleet HQ told Interfax-Military News Agency Monday.
The commission headed by Chief-of -Staff Anatoly Kvashnin was inspecting the Far Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet June 2 to 7. The inspection has come to a conclusion that the forces deployed in the area are ready to fulfil the missions assigned with due account for the contingency forecast and for possible regional sources of danger for the nation.
"Many of these missions will be trained within a large-scale exercise coming in August. For example, the forces will be trained for action in an emergency on land and in the coastal area," the source said.
A special exercise on the island of Sakhalin will be devoted to protecting the oil-rich sea shelf and managing an emergency situation, the source also said.
According to Kvashnin, a lot of foreign military observers will be invited to the exercise because of a great interest many countries of the region have revealed.
According to the source, the meeting was also attended by Konstantin Pulikovsky, presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, and by heads of all law enforcement authorities of the Russian Far East.
In comment to rumors on possible redeployment of a number of warships of the Black Sea Fleet, including the Moskva heavy cruiser, within the Pacific Fleet, Kvashnin said that all forces in all areas of the country were being developed in accordance with the plan of the Russian Armed Forces military development plan.
"So far the Pacific Fleet can do with the forces that are currently available," he chief-of-staff emphasized.