WW3 PREPARATION?!: Putin ORDERS Large scale MILITARY exercises in the Black Sea region! President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of military exercises in the Black Sea region on Thursday, his spokesperson said. Putin issued the order at 4:00am Moscow time (0000 GMT) as he flew back from an international summit in South Africa, the president's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a surprise military exercise in the Black Sea. News agencies quote his spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Putin dispatched the order to the defence minister at 4 a.m. on Thursday. A Kremlin statement says the exercise would involve 36 vessels, an unspecified number of airplanes and up to 7,000 troops. Peskov insisted that manoeuvrs involving fewer than 7,000 troops do not require approval from Russia's neighbours. Vessels taking part in the exercise have already left Russia-leased Sevastopol port in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, Peskov said. Russia's naval affairs are under scrutiny due to the civil war in ally Syria. Russia risks losing access to its naval base in Syria's Tartus port on the Mediterranean Sea if the Syrian regime is toppled. President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of large-scale Russian military exercises in the Black Sea region on Thursday, his spokesman said, in a move that may create tensions with Russia's post-Soviet neighbours Ukraine and Georgia. Putin issued the order to start the previously unannounced manoeuvres at 4 a.m. Moscow time (0400 GMT) as he flew back from an international summit in South Africa, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters by telephone. "These are large-scale unannounced test exercises," Peskov said, adding that 36 warships and an unspecified number of warplanes would take part. "The main goal is to check the readiness and cohesion of the various units." He did not say how long the exercises would last. Putin has stressed the importance of a strong and agile military since he returned to the presidency last May after four years as prime minister. In 13 years in power, he has often cited external threats when talking of the need for unity in Russia. Russia's Black Sea fleet, whose main base is in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, was instrumental in a war with Georgia in 2008 over the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Disputes with Kiev over Moscow's continued lease of the Black Sea navy base have been a thorn in relations with its former Soviet neighbour. Peskov said that Russia is under no obligation to warn neighbours ahead of time of plans to hold the air and sea military exercises as long as fewer than 7,000 servicemen participated in the manoeuvres.
