MOCK BATTLES MAKE FOR FAST FRIENDSHIP
by Oleg Korupai, Alexander Tikhonov

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 16, 2005, Friday

SOURCE: Krasnaya Zvezda, September 13, 2005, pp. 1, 3

TACTICAL EXERCISE OF THE UNITED RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ARMY GROUP IS
NEARING ITS END

Tactical exercise of the United Russian-Armenian Army Group will be
completed today. The exercise is being run at the Training Center named
after Marshal of the Soviet Union, Ivan Bagramjan, in Armavir, Armenia.

Threat of the Northern invasion gauged as real, the South takes
measures to prevent an aggression against Armenia. Readiness status
of the troops is upgraded. Establishment of Groups NN 1 and 2 of the
United Russian-Armenian Army Group is completed in accordance with the
tactical plans. With the invasion under way, the groups are supposed to
defend vital objects from enemy air raids and attacks and to contain
and destroy the enemy afterwards. Group One sends reinforcements to
the area of the Training Center in order to boost the defense in the
Yerevan direction.

This is the scenario of the Russian-Armenian tactical exercise that
will be completed today. This is the tenth joint exercise run by units
of the friendly armies. The first exercise of the series was run here,
in Armavir, in summer 1995.

As a rule, exercises are run by different units of Groups NN 1 and 2.

Group One includes units of the 102nd Military Base of the Russian
Army Group in the Caucasus in Gyumri, motorized infantry and artillery
regiments of the Armenian national army. Colonel Andrei Kholzakov,
commander of the Russian military base, commands the Group. Group Two
includes units of the 5th Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Armenia and
the motorized infantry regiment of the 102nd Military Base commanded
by Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Chernichenko.

Corps Commander Major General Valery Grigorjan commands the group.

Lieutenant General Mikhail Grigorjan commands the united group. Major
General Alexander Zinoviev, Commander of the Combat Control Team for
the Russian Troops in Armenia, is the Russian second-in-command of
the United Russian-Armenian Army Group.

The exercise in question mostly involved units of Group 1. It was
run in three stages.

Stage One included a drill of the United Group Command, Stage Two
a command exercise of Group One, and Stage Three (joint tactical
regimental exercise) involved motorized infantry regiment under Colonel
Menyakin (the 102nd Military Base) and the 545th Motorized Infantry
Regiment of the 5th Army Corps of the Armenian national army. Units
and formations of the Russian and Armenian armies fortified motorized
infantry battalions of the United Russian-Armenian Army Group involved
in this phase of the exercise.

Units directly controlled by the United Group Command drilled
cooperation (the matter concerns the 15th and 121st AF bases of
the Armed Forces of Armenia and the AF base of the 102nd Russian
Military Base).

United Army Group Commander Grigorjan says that interaction and
cooperation between units of the Russian and Armenian armies are
superb, enabling the group command to confidently tackle all and any
tasks. Grigorjan made a special emphasize on the defensive scenario
of the exercise that answered the purpose of repelling an aggression
against any participant. One of the purposes of the exercise concerned
prevention of acts of sabotage by enemy special forces operating behind
the lines of the United Russian-Armenian Army Group (specifically,
prevention of destruction of a nuclear power plant).

Russia and Armenia established diplomatic relations in 1992. Since
then, our countries have signed over 160 treaties and accords including
the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (August
29, 1997) and documents on Russian military presence in Armenia (Treaty
on the Legal Status of Russian Armed Forces on the Territory of the
Republic of Armenia dated August 21, 1992, Treaty on the Russian
Military Base on the Territory of the Republic of Armenia dated March
16, 1996). All these documents state that security of the two states,
collective security in the Commonwealth, and stability in the region
are the main purposes of the Russian-Armenian military cooperation.

The Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of
Armenia on Joint Planning, Deployment of Troops (Forces) for the
Purposes of Mutual Security was signed in Sochi, Russia, on August
27, 2000. The National Assembly of Armenia ratified it in February
2001. The document legalizes establishment on the territory of
Armenia of the Joint Russian-Armenian Army Group comprising units
and formations of the Russian and Armenian national armies. The
Joint Russian-Armenian Army Group includes units and formations
given the task of defense under the joint command in the period of
deterioration of the military-political situation in the region and
a threat of aggression against Russia or Armenia from a foreign state
or a coalition.

The exercise that is about to be completed will not be the last in
the history of Russian-Armenian relations, according to Armenian
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisjan. According to Sarkisjan, relations
between Yerevan and Moscow – particularly in the military-political
sphere – have advanced all through existence of a sovereign Armenian
state. Moreover, they are at the height of their potential at this
point.

Nikolai Bordyuzha, General Secretary of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization, is expected to participate in evaluation of the
outcome of the exercise.