OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Putin met with senior Defence Ministry and Security Council Staff officials to discuss the results of snap military exercises held on March 28-29 in Krasnodar Territory.
The President gave the order on March 28, 2013 to hold large-scale military exercises in the Black Sea area, and on March 29 came to Krasnodar Territory to personally to observe the exercises.

The exercises involved up to 7,000 servicemen, more than 30 ships based in Sevastopol and Novorossiisk, aircraft, paratroopers rapid reaction forces, marines, and Military Intelligence special forces.

Later, Vladimir Putin held a meeting with representatives from the Main Operations Directorate of the Armed Forces’ General Staff.

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Beginning of meeting with senior Defence Ministry and Security Council Staff officials

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon.

At the Defence Ministry Board meeting back in February, we clarified the main priorities for our Armed Forces’ development and training.

The main tasks are to improve the organisational structure, modernise arms and equipment, and build a modern, compact and effective army capable of carrying out any mission and able to guarantee our country’s security in all circumstances.

We have held a number of training exercises, including snap exercises, recently in order to assess the re-equipment and training process and see what progress has been made.

One of those snap exercises took place here, in southern Russia, on March 28-29, 2013. The Black Sea Fleet, forces from the Southern Military District, air force, paratroopers, and special forces units all took part.

Today, we will analyse those exercises, the results obtained and the problems or shortcomings they revealed. All of this is to be taken into account in our subsequent work, including the Zapad-2013 strategic exercises scheduled for autumn this year.

As for the things I want you to focus on in your reports, first, on the military command bodies’ performance, and second, the way the servicemen performed. Third is how effectively we are using the military infrastructure – the bases, air fields, and testing grounds. We have invested considerable effort and money in developing this infrastructure over recent years, and we have to see if this is producing actual results, if there is any real change for the better, and what else we should do in this area. Fourth is arms and military equipment. We have been delivering more new equipment to the various units, and still more is set to come over the near future, as you know. We have to look at how the servicemen are using it, and we must assess too, how it performs in near-real combat conditions.

Before giving the floor to the Chief of General Staff for his report, I would like to hear from the Security Council experts, who have a lot of experience of analytical work in the armed forces, and then I will say a few more words myself with reference to the preliminary documents and reports that I received for analysis.