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Practising conversion to wartime composition Russian army’s priority — Chief of Defense

The readiness of the armed forces for prompt action is one of the chief requirements for maintaining the country’s defense and security in the modern situation

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. One of the most important tasks of Russia’s General Staff at the moment is coordination of activities by military control bodies and bodies of state power to practise measures essential to converting the Armed Forces and other troops and forces to wartime composition, the chief of the General Staff, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, said on Friday.

"The experience of the past war will never lose its significance," Gerasimov said. "The readiness of the armed forces for prompt action is one of the chief requirements for maintaining the country’s defense and security in the modern situation," he said.

In view of this circumstance Russia back in December 2010 under a presidential decree on the military-administrative structure of the country formed the strategic commands of the Western, Southern, Central and Eastern military districts. And in December 2014 a united strategic command was formed, Gerasimov recalled.

"Each strategic command is responsible for the combat readiness of the subordinate forces and for maintaining Russia’s security in the given strategic area," Gerasimov said.

He believes that in training troops in the future the main efforts will be focused on practicing organization and joint accomplishment of missions by combined groups of troops. The exercises will be held against a common strategic and operative background according to unified military-political and strategic situation scenarios, he said.