On Friday, July 24, a session of the Russian Defense Ministry took place in Moscow under the leadership of the Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu. The Board session was attended by the representatives of federal executive authorities and the leadership of the Armed Forces.
After observing a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of the servicemen killed by the collapsing building of the Airborne training centre of Omsk, the Board focused on the "condition of the aerial hardware and measures taken for prevention of aviation accidents", and on the presence of the Russian Armed Forces in the Republics of Central Asia (to strengthen stability in the region and prevent drug trafficking, arms smuggling and terrorism). The session than suddendly focused on the Arctic. As reported by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation website: "General of the Army Sergei Shoigu introduced for discussion the issue concerning rearmament of force grouping located in zones of the Arctic and Kuril Islands. He said the rearmament was carried out according to the schedule.
By the end of 2015, the construction of military and social facilities located in zones of the Arctic and Kuril Islands would have been finished. Living and recreation conditions are being created for servicemen and their families. Modern houses, hospitals, cinemas and roads are being built.
The Minister put an emphasis on the issue concerning federal special-purpose programme.
General of the Army Sergei Shoigu reminded that realization of such programme provided opportunities to perform joint tasks concerning utilization of armament and military hardware, to construct the Black Sea Fleet base infrastructure and to raise control over Russian air area.
According to the Defence Minister, it is important to continue working on such directions as creating military infrastructure in the Arctic, development of the airfield net, implementation of advanced technologies in the field of logistics and others."