Nearly 100 drills will be conducted for servicemen of the Russian military base in Tajikistan in a new training year, which began on December 1, 2019, according to the Russian Defense Ministry press center.
“Nearly 100 military exercises of various scale will be conducted for servicemen of the Russian military in Tajikistan during the new training year, including more than 70 company tactical exercises, more than five tactical flight exercises with participation of air groups, as well as several international maneuvers with participation of Tajik servicemen,” Deputy Commander of the Russian Central Military District, Major-General Yevgeny Poplavsky, was quoted as saying.
Training for the crews of air defense systems S-300PS reportedly began at the Lohour training ground on December 1.
The S-300 system has been deployed in Tajikistan for the first time. The systems arrived in Tajikistan by rail from an arms depot of the Central Military District located in Russia’s Volga region.
The Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan is Russia's largest non-naval military facility outside the country. It was officially opened in Tajikistan in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.
A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are now stationed at two military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe and Bokhtar (formerly Qurghon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe.
