Russia is holding military exercises to test its combat readiness amid clashes between its ally Azerbaijan and Armenian forces, Russia’s defense minister told his Azeri counterpart on Saturday.The Defense Ministry described the exercises as a routine check of the army’s capacity to ensure security in Russia’s southwestern region and denied any links between the training and the fighting taking place in the Caucasus region, south of Russia.More than a dozen Armenian and Azeri soldiers have been killed in recent days in clashes between the two former Soviet republics which have long been at odds over Azerbaijan’s breakaway, mainly ethnic Armenian …read more
Source:: Al Arabiya
