Political analysts: large-scale military exercises in Southern Russia to demonstrate strength

Exercises involving military units of the Southern Military District demonstrate the Russia's strength in the region, including to the authorities of Georgia, where the NATO exercises had been held earlier. That opinion was voiced by political analysts and journalists.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that about 45,000 soldiers and officers of the Southern Military District will take part in exercises in the Volgograd and Rostov Regions, the Stavropol Territory and Kuban, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Chechnya, Crimea, as well as at military bases in Armenia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. Marines in Dagestan also joined the military exercises.

"The military exercises are taking place in Southern Russia and at bases in Southern Caucasus to ensure that everyone in the region should feel that Russia has well-trained troops that carry out their combat missions there," explained Andrei Koshkin, a member of the Association of Military Political Analysts.

According to military political analyst Alexander Perendjiev, by its actions, Russia shows its readiness to repel any threats of an enemy.

In its turn, Pavel Felgenhauer, an observer of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", believes the exercises can be a response to the NATO exercises in Georgia.