MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. About 97,000 civilians took part in the command staff exercise Kavkaz-2016, which ended on September 10, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"All in all the exercise involved 125,000 troops, 97,000 of civilian personnel, more than 300 planes and about as many helicopters," Shoigu said at a meeting of the Public Council under the Russian Defense Ministry.

"We mobilized not only military equipment, but also human resources in several territories of Russia. All went rather successfully. I must thank the heads of the regional authorities for that," Shoigu said.

The recent exercise was the largest one in the whole year.

"For the first time ever financial agencies under the Central Bank were ordered to participate in the war games. The point at issue was to practice all procedures related with the financing of the armed forces during a special period. For that there must be field bank offices and many other essentials. I would like to say that everybody coped with the tasks, but the final review of the results is still ahead," Shoigu said.

The Caucasus-2016 exercise was held in Russia on September 5-10. According to earlier reports, taking part in them were more than 120,000 troops, but no more than 12,500 simultaneously at any one time in the southern regions of the country. Various phases of the exercise took place at 14 proving grounds, and also in the Black and Caspian Seas. Naval drills and practices at the Prodboi proving ground in the Volgograd Region and at the Opuk proving ground in Crimea were the most significant events.