MOSCOW, March 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President and Supreme Commander in Chief Vladimir Putin has ordered troops that took part in military exercises to return to their bases, the president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

According to Peskov, on Monday, after a report about successful exercises was presented to Putin, the supreme commander in chief ordered the troops that participated in the exercises to return to their permanent deployment bases.

On Monday, the president personally watched the exercises on the Kirillovsky training ground in the Leningrad Region, together with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the Western Military District Troops' Commander Anatoly Sidorov and Chief of the Main Department for Combat Training of the Armed Forces Ivan Buvaltsev.

The urgent drills were conducted to test the combat readiness of troops of the western and central military districts, involving 150,000 personnel, up to 90 planes, 120 helicopters, 880 tanks and 80 ships.

On the training ground, Putin, who had ordered the urgent drills, watched tactical exercises of a motorized infantry brigade and paratroops who played five main episodes - brigade units' combat actions, elimination of an enemy detachment, landing of paratroopers to destroy a control point, landing of tactical airborne units to isolate an areas of combat actions and an operation to destroy artillery and a material support battalion. The training involved more than 1,800 personnel, more than 30 tanks, about 20 combat vehicles, five planes and 80 helicopters.