MOSCOW, September 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Novorossiysk on Tuesday to hold a meeting on the development of the Azov-Black Sea basin ports, the Kremlin press service said.
He will also hear a video report from the Vostok 2014 military exercises currently underway in the Far East.
The meeting in Novorossiysk will be attended by the relevant ministers, heads of regions, representatives of the Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy) and other departments.
The president held the previous meeting on this issue in August 2013. It focused on the plans to increase the port infrastructure capacity in the Black and Azov Sea region. Russia has more than 10 seaports in this region - Rostov-on-Don, Azov, Taganrog, Yeisk, Temryuk, Kavkaz, Taman, Anapa, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi. In 2014, Crimean ports were added to this list.
“Also, in a videoconference with the Kamchatka Peninsula, where the command post of the Joint Command of North-East forces is located, the president will hear a report by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on the Vostok 2014 manoeuvres progress,” the report says.
The Vostok 2014 strategic command and staff exercises were launched in the Eastern Military District on September 19 and will last until September 25. They involve a total of about 100,000 troops, up to 1,500 tanks, up to 120 aircraft and 70 ships, as well as other military equipment.
Several Western Military District formations and the units that on 11-18 September were involved in the snap check of the Western Military District forces, held by the order of the Russian president, participate in the exercise.
Vostok 2014 is the final stage of the complex command-staff exercises and special drills of military command and control bodies, snap checks of Russia’s Armed Forces’ combat readiness in 2014, which has involved the staffs and commands of all levels, units and formations of all army braches and services.