By Zachary Keck
Russia is holding its biggest war games since the era of the Soviet Union in its Far East region that borders on China, Japan and Korea.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the snap drill on Friday when he told the Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu to inform countries like China that border on where the drill will be held. It is the third such snap drill to be held by Russia since Putin reassumed the office of the presidency.
Putin has praised holding snap drills as the best way to demonstrate combat readiness.
According to Russian media sources, “160,000 servicemen, 1000 tanks, 130 planes and 70 ships” are participating in the drills, which will continue through July 20.
A statement released by Russia’s Defense Ministry said: “The main purpose of the activities is to check the readiness of the military units to perform assigned tasks and evaluate the level of personnel’s training and technical preparation as well as the level of equipment of units with arms and military equipment.”
Many Russian officials emphasized that the participating troops did not know their final destination or explicit objective at the beginning of the drill, in an apparent effort to make the games more realistic.
Read the full story at The Diplomat