23:00, 6 July 2009

Exercises "Kavkaz-2009" are over in the south of Russia

The operative-strategic exercises "Kavkaz-2009", held in the North-Caucasian Military District (NCMD) in the south of Russia since June 29, are over.

The exercises were held in the training areas of the NCMD located in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Astrakhan, Volgograd and Rostov Regions, Republics of Ingushetia, Dagestan, Northern Ossetia-Alania, Karachai-Circassia and the Chechen Republic.

The actors of the exercises were 8500 servicemen, about 200 tanks, 450 armoured combat vehicles, up to 250 artillery-type weapons and other special and combat machines.

Today, Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Bobrun, head of the information and PR service of the NCMD told the "Interfax" that "all the aims and tasks of the exercises have been completely reached.

In the course of the exercises, the militaries were shooting in the conditions close, as much as possible, to real warfare. The group of troops involved in the exercises surrounded and liquidated a conventional gang of international terrorists, who had tried to set up their camps in Northern Caucasus, as reported by the IA "News-Georgia".