Posted on 08/08/2002 7:13:27 PM PDT by Sawdring
Moscow, Aug. 8. (DPA): Russia today began its largest ever military exercises in the Caspian, deploying 10,000 men and 60 warships to the inland sea.
The manoeuvres were "to enable Russia's defence against real threats", Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said in the town of Astrakhan.
Russia shares the Caspian with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran, and has for years disputed ownership of the vast gas and oil reserves there.
The eight-day exercise will rehearse operations against drug running, terrorism and poaching in the sea, where stocks of the caviar-producing sturgeon fish have been depleted to the point of extinction.
Azerbaijani and Kazakh forces also are participating. Iran is represented by military observers and Turkmenistan stayed away, citing its neutrality.
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