MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Russian military in the course of the strategic exercise Center-2015 practiced struggle against Islamic State terrorists and the Taliban, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said while summarizing the results of exercises at the National Defense Control Center.
"The 2015 exercise focused on conditions approximating real combat situations to the maximum extent," he said.
"For this the training of troops simulating a hypothetical enemy was carried out well in advance on the basis of thorough analysis of Islamic State tactics in Syria and Iraq and also the Taliban in Afghanistan," he said.
This year’s largest exercise Center-2015 was held in Russia on September 14-20, with 95,000 troops, 7,000 pieces of military equipment, 170 planes and 20 naval ships taking part. For the first time ever Kazakhstan’s contingent affiliated with the CSTO collective rapid reaction force joined the Russian army for the exercise."
According to earlier reports, one of the key tasks of the exercise was struggle against hypothetical militants and localization of international armed conflicts in Central Asia.
Starting from September 30 Russia’s air and space force has been dealing surgical strikes against targets of the Islamic State in Syria. In Russia, the IS is prohibited as a terrorist organization. The Russian air group in Syria consists of more than 50 planes and aircraft. Russia has no plans to participate in ground operations.