A meeting headed by Public Council Chairman Pavel Gusev listened to reports on the working visits of council members to the armed forces and discussed the preparation and holding of the West 2013 strategic exercise and other urgent issues.
Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said that on July 22 the Ministry would submit to the Government a bill to increase the service limit by five years. Mr Pankov said that the Ministry was collecting comments on the bill from the authorities and the public for over a month and that it has not received a single critical comment.
Public Council Deputy Chairman Alexander Kanshin reported on the results of a surprise inspection of the Eastern and Central Military Districts. He said that after considering the scope of combat training, the number of troops and military equipment involved and the coordinated work of the Ministry of Defence, Russian Railways and civil aviation and fleet, the professionals have concluded that the army and the navy are combat ready, mobile and can fulfil combat tasks in any war theatre, and are also capable of quickly moving from one theatre to another.
Source: Ministry of Defence
