Command and staff exercises engaging more that 20,000 servicemen of Russian interior troops and 1,300 trucks and armoured personnel carriers began on Monday.

The commander of interior troops, Colonel-General Nikolai Rogozhkin, supervises the exercises.

The chief of the interior troops' press service, Colonel Vasily Panchenkov, told Itar-Tass that command of all seven interior troop districts took part in the drill.

It is planned to move a number of units to the area of the exercises by air and rail, and some will make forced marches to training grounds, the officer said.

Source: Itar-Tass