Exercise “Kavkaz-2009” begins in Russia’s south

MOSCOW, June 29 (Itar-Tass) -- The operational-strategic exercise “Kavkaz-2009” has begun in Russia’s south on Monday.

As head of the Information and Public Relations Service of the North-Caucasian Military District (NCMD) Colonel Andrei Bobrun told ITAR-TASS, “the exercise in the NCMD is being held in the period from June 29 to July 6 in accordance with a plan of training of the Russian Armed Forces under the direction of chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces General of the Army Nikolai Makarov.”

“Large units and military units of the NCMD, as well as interacting and dependent agencies - - the armies of the Air Force and Air Defense, the Caspian small fleet, the Novorossiisk naval base, the regional command of Interior Troops of the Russian Interior Ministry and the Airborne Troops are being involved in the exercise,” Bobrun specified. “The exercise will be held in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, the Astrakhan, Volgograd and Rostov Regions, the Republics of North Ossetia – Olania, Ingushetia and Dagestan, as well as the Karachayevo-Cherkess and Chechen Republics.