Russian President Vladimir Putin personally oversaw large-scale drills conducted by the nation's strategic deterrence forces within Russian territory on Saturday. An Iskander ground-based cruise missile was launched from a training ground in the Astrakhan region in southern Russia, and a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched at a target on the Kamchatka Peninsula from northwest Russia's Plesetsk cosmodrome. The Kremlin said the strategic deterrence exercise, which checked the combat readiness of the troops and the reliability of the weapons, was "planned previously."