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From an observation post, the President watched combat shooting by the 27th motorized rifle division and 2nd Combined-Arms Army.

During the exercises, a battalion from the Privolzhye-Ural Military District missile brigade carried out the simultaneous combat training launch of two tactical Tochka-U missiles against ‘enemy’ command posts located around 30 kilometres away. The targets were destroyed 1.5 minutes after the missiles were launched.

The Privolzhye-Urals Military District Centre-2008 strategic operations exercises began on September 1 and involve three stages: the first stage saw joint Russian-Kazakhstani tactical exercises with combat shooting; the second stage involved command headquarters exercises and a number of tactical exercises at battalion, brigade and regiment level in the Urals region, and the third stage comprises operations exercises by the Second Army in the Privolzhye region.

Tens of thousands of armed forces servicemen, around 2,000 combat and special vehicles, more than 50 ground support, fighter, and military transport planes and several dozen helicopters are taking part in the exercises.

Mr Medvedev and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov surveyed the test ground from a helicopter before the active phase of manoeuvres began.