"Despite a significant decrease in general tension, a potential threat remains, first of all, for local and regional conflicts on different scales and intensity, which can be seen in the southern borders of the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries," Army General Alexei Maslov, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Land Forces, said.
He said that in a possible war, joint operations involving various military forces will be tightly coordinated as never before to solve extremely difficult and interconnected tasks.
"The ultimate defeat of an enemy should be the task of groups of military forces, although primarily based on land forces," Maslov said.
He added that land forces have always been and will continue to be the only means of maintaining and controlling territories.
Last year, he said, Russian Land Forces held about 500 command and staff exercises and participated in a number of international exercises.
"All [international] exercises were oriented at either antiterrorism or peacekeeping scenarios," Maslov said.
Russian Land Forces are deployed in all six military districts of the country and, according to some estimates, about 400,000 personnel are enlisted.
