Putin "put 40,000 troops on full alert as part of "snap-readiness exercises", but less than 24 hours followed this up with even more demonstrative military "drills" after Sputnik reported that Russian strategic Tu-22M3 (Backfire) strike bombers have been deployed to the Crimean Peninsula to hold snap combat readiness drills, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday, in addition to further massive troops and equipment deployment tests in the western part of the nation as well as around the Arctic circle.