MOSCOW, September 11./ITAR-TASS/. Vladimir Putin, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia's Armed Forces, has decided to carry out an unscheduled checkup of the operational readiness of all troops of the Eastern Military District (EMD), General of the Army Sergey Shoigu, Minister of Defense, announced on Thursday at a conference with the Command of the Armed Forces.

"In accordance with his instruction, the troops of the EMD, as well as forces and military units stationed in its territory, shall be readied operationally," Shoigu ordered.

The Minister of Defense also ordered moving military control agencies and troops to military ranges to ready them for the accomplishment of tasks in line with their mission at control training sessions and tactical exercises.

The check will be held on September 11-18, the defense minister said.

The defense minister also gave orders to practice the tasks of setting up special formations for technical protection of railway directions, roads important for defense purposes and the routes of troops’ movement, as well as the tasks of transferring civil vessels to the Russian Navy.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said that apart from surprise checkup of operational readiness of troops of the Eastern military district, President Vladimir Putin ordered the ministry to check together with the Chief Directorate of Special Programs the readiness of authorities in the east of the country to perform tasks in conditions of war time.

This is not the first checkup of the operational readiness of troops of a military district since the beginning of the current year: at the end of February Putin ordered checking up the operational readiness of the Western and Central Military Districts and that of the Central one at the end of June. Besides, a checkup of the operational readiness of a number of units of the combined command of troops and forces in the country's north-east was carried out in August, and large-scale exercises of the forces dealing with the material and technical support of the army were held early this month.