MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has ordered snap checks of troops' combat readiness in Russia's far east, the latest in a series of military drills this year as tensions have mounted over the crisis in Ukraine.
Russian news agencies quoted Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as telling the armed forces' leadership on Thursday that troops in the eastern military district, which includes Russia's maritime border with Japan and its land frontier with China, had been ordered to be on full combat readiness at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time.