Military officials of the region have been substituted by the strategic commandment

The president Dmitrij Medvedev signed the Order on the establishment of four joint strategic commandments (JSC), which will substitute the six currently existing military regions. The news was reported on 14 June by the General of the Army Nikolaj Makarov, the Head of the General Headquarters.

As reported by Mr. Makarov, according to the Order signed by the President on 6 July, the military regions as structures of management of the army will remain, but on their basis the joint strategic commandment is going to be formed. The Moscow and Leningrad military regions shall be merged into a joint strategic commandment “Zapad” (West) including also the Baltic and North Fleet (with the Headquarters in St. Petersburg). The North-Caucasus military region together with the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian navy will form the JSC “Jug” (South), with the Headquarters in Rostov on Don. On the basis of the Privolga-Ural and the Western part of the Siberian military regions the Joint Strategic Commandment “Centr” (Centre) with the Headquarters in Jakaterinburg will be formed. The JSC “Vostok” (the East) will cover the Eastern part of the Siberian region and the Far East military region, including the Pacific Fleet (The Headquarters in Chabarovsk).

Subsequently, as stated by Nikolaj Makarov, the final management system of the military forces is formed, removing multiple duplicating systems in all four joint strategic commandments. Since now the number of management levels at the military forces is reduced from eleven to three. The final implementation of the reform in the management system and the structure of military forces, as stated by the Head of the Headquarters, are planned for the 1^st of December.

However, Vasilij Zacepin from the Laboratory of the Military Economics at the Institute of economics for the transitional period considers that such reorganisation is no more than experiment, which does not answer the key issue: how effective will the management of the military forces be in the case of actual military actions? According to the opinion of the expert, management of military forces during the war in the South Osetia in August 2008 was carried out by the structures of the Defence Ministry on a rather low level.

Material has been prepared by the Centre of Geopolitical Studies with reference to the article from «Коммерсантъ» of 15 07 2010

For effective complex defence of Latvia, the establishment of a permanent division of the National Armed Forces has started in Latgale, reported the official website of the Ministry of Defence.

On 13 January a concert "Together to the victory" was held in Lithuania, where the audience decided to support Ukraine's defence and donated 110 thousand Euros.

Alexander Lukashenko on 9 January signed a decree № 8 "On the establishment of visa-free entry and exit of foreign nationals." The document establishes visa-free entry to Belarus for a period not exceeding 5 days at the entrance through the checkpoint "National Airport Minsk" for citizens of 80 countries, - reported the press service of the President of Belarus.