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85-556: The organization dates back to 1862 when it was established under the name Главное артиллерийское управление (ГАУ – GAU ). The "R" from "rockets" was added to the title from 19 November 1960. The GRAU is responsible for assigning GRAU indices to Russian army munitions and equipment . As of December 2021, the Chief of the GRAU was Major General Nikolay Romanovsky. Arsenals of the GRAU, according to Kommersant -Vlast in 2005, included

170-876: A series of four terrorist bombings across Russia. This prompted Russian military action against the alleged Chechen culprits. In the first Chechen war, the Russians primarily laid waste to an area with artillery and airstrikes before advancing the land forces. Improvements were made in the Ground Forces between 1996 and 1999; when the Second Chechen War started, instead of hastily assembled "composite regiments" dispatched with little or no training, whose members had never seen service together, formations were brought up to strength with replacements, put through preparatory training, and then dispatched. Combat performance improved accordingly, and large-scale opposition

255-416: A 20-percent rise authorised in 2001. The current professionalisation programme, including 26,000 extra sergeants , was expected to cost at least 31 billion roubles (US$ 1.1 billion). Increased funding has been spread across the whole budget, with personnel spending being matched by greater procurement and research and development funding. However, in 2004, Alexander Goltz said that, given the insistence of

340-573: A 40-percent increase in crime over the previous six months, including a 41-percent rise in serious bodily injuries. Disappearances of weapons rose to rampant levels, especially in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Generals directing the withdrawals from Eastern Europe diverted arms, equipment, and foreign monies intended to build housing in Russia for the withdrawn troops. Several years later,

425-474: A change from an Army-Division-Regiment structure to a Corps-Brigade arrangement. The new structures were to be more capable in a situation with no front line, and more capable of independent action at all levels. Cutting out a level of command, omitting two out of three higher echelons between the theatre headquarters and the fighting battalions, would produce economies, increase flexibility, and simplify command-and-control arrangements. The expected changeover to

510-625: A few days before the operation seized control of other key city points. In December 1979, the undercover Spetsnaz GRU unit codenamed " Muslim Battalion " participated in Operation Storm-333 , the successful mission to assassinate Hafizullah Amin , the President of Afghanistan , and to capture Amin's residential palace which triggered the Soviet–Afghan War . Most of Spetsnaz GRU's operations remain classified even after

595-603: A given item belongs to. The second part, a Cyrillic character, indicates the subcategory. The third part, a number, indicates the specific model. The optional suffix can be used to differentiate variants of the same model. Russian army The Russian Ground Forces , also known as the Russian Army in English, are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces . The primary responsibilities of

680-494: A given piece of equipment could have a design name, an industrial name and a service designation. For example, one of the surface-to-air missiles in the S-25 Berkut air defense system had at least four domestic designations: Some Soviet general-purpose bombs bore a designation that looked confusingly similar to GRAU. The first part of a GRAU index is a number indicating which of the several main categories of equipment

765-417: A group of middle- and senior-ranking officers conducted a regimental map exercise was rudimentary, with young soldiers manning radio-telephones relaying orders to imaginary units in some imaginary field location. On the motor pool visit, I was able to crawl into a T-80 tank—it was cramped, dirty, and in poor repair—and even fire a few rounds in a very primitive simulator. In June 1999 Russian forces, though not

850-561: A haven for criminals, and a hard-line group within the Kremlin began advocating war. A Security Council meeting was held 29 November 1994, where Yeltsin ordered the Chechens to disarm, or else Moscow would restore order. Defence Minister Pavel Grachev assured Yeltsin that he would "take Grozny with one airborne assault regiment in two hours." The operation began on 11 December 1994 and, by 31 December, Russian forces were entering Grozny ,

935-654: A mixed Ground Force, of both contract soldiers and conscripts, would remain. (As of 2009, the length of conscript service was 12 months.) Funding increases began in 1999. After some recovery of the economy and the associated rise in income, especially from oil, "..officially reported defence spending [rose] in nominal terms at least, for the first time since the formation of the Russian Federation". The budget rose from 141 billion rubles in 2000 to 219 billion rubles in 2001. Much of this funding has been spent on personnel—there have been several pay rises, starting with

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1020-701: A more comfortable posting. Beyond the Russian frontier, drugs were smuggled across the Tajik border—supposedly being patrolled by Russian guards—by military aircraft, and a Russian senior officer, General Major Alexander Perelyakin, had been dismissed from his post with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia-Hercegovina ( UNPROFOR ), following continued complaints of smuggling, profiteering, and corruption. In terms of contract killings, beyond

1105-593: A problem. Lack of fuel for training and a shortage of well-trained junior officers hampered combat effectiveness. However, concentrating on the interests of his old service, the Strategic Rocket Forces , Sergeyev directed the disbanding of the Ground Forces headquarters itself in December 1997. The disbandment was a "military nonsense", in Orr's words, "justifiable only in terms of internal politics within

1190-413: A specially assigned codename. For example " 2 S 19   Msta-S ", the 2S19 Msta self-propelled howitzer, has the index 2S19 , without suffix; Msta-S is the codename. Several common misconceptions surround the scope and originating body of these indices. The GRAU designation is not an industrial designation, nor is it assigned by the design bureau. In addition to its GRAU designation,

1275-448: A statement on 4 September 2009, RGF Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Boldyrev said that half of the Russian land forces were reformed by 1 June and that 85 brigades of constant combat preparedness had already been created. Among them are the combined-arms brigade, missile brigades, assault brigades and electronic warfare brigades. During General Mark Hertling 's term as Commander, United States Army Europe in 2011–2012, he visited Russia at

1360-622: A time, but the fighting continued. Following this incident, the separatists were referred to as insurgents or terrorists within Russia. Dzhokar Dudayev was assassinated in a Russian airstrike on 21 April 1996, and that summer, a Chechen attack retook Grozny . Alexander Lebed , then Secretary of the Security Council, began talks with the Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in August 1996 and signed an agreement on 22/23 August; by

1445-772: Is correct term in relation to the staff of the OSNB PDSS. Every PDSS unit has approximately 50–60 combat swimmers. There are PDSS units in all major naval bases across Russia. The OMRP is composed of reconnaissance divers that fall under operational subordination to the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). There are four OMRPs in Russia serving each fleet: Northern Fleet, Baltic Fleet, Black Sea Fleet and Pacific Fleet, with each consisting of 120–200 personnel. The Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad were two Spetsnaz units; Vostok headquartered at Eastern Chechnya and Zapad headquartered at Western Chechnya. It

1530-760: Is directly subordinated to the General Staff , bypassing the GRU. In 2013, the Directorate became the Special Operations Forces Command with a GRU unit transferring to the command. In 2010, Spetsnaz GRU units were reassigned to the military districts of the Ground Forces and was subordinate to the operational-strategic commands until 2012, due to then Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov 's military reforms. This decision

1615-770: Is more, the order is being enforced, with several prosecutions recorded. President Putin also demanded a halt to dishonest use of military property in November 2005: "We must completely eliminate the use of the Armed Forces' material base for any commercial objectives." The spectrum of dishonest activity has included, in the past, exporting aircraft as scrap metal; but the point at which officers are prosecuted has shifted, and investigations over trading in travel warrants and junior officers' routine thieving of soldiers' meals are beginning to be reported. However, British military analysts comment that "there should be little doubt that

1700-691: Is the special forces ( spetsnaz ) of the GRU , the foreign military intelligence agency of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation . The Stavka began preparing special-purpose ( OSNAZ ) groups to serve in the GRU in 1937 - training personnel for special-purpose radio units at the engineering radio-technical department of the Budyonny Military Electro-Technical Academy in Leningrad . The Spetsnaz GRU,

1785-571: The Alpha Group (established in 1974) - both within the KGB . The concept of using special forces tactics and strategies in the Soviet Union was originally proposed by the military theorist Mikhail Svechnykov , who envisaged the development of unconventional warfare capabilities in order to overcome the disadvantages that conventional forces faced in the field. Svechnykov was executed during

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1870-576: The Caucasus Emirate , Wilayat al-Qawqaz and other smaller terrorist groups. After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation , during which some units of Spetsnaz GRU were a part of the " Little green men ", and the start of the rebel insurgency by pro-Russian rebels, Ukraine has on numerous occasions accused various Spetsnaz forces of aiding the rebels and even fighting on the ground in Eastern Ukraine . In December 2014,

1955-668: The Great Purge in 1938, but practical implementation of his ideas was begun by Ilya Starinov , dubbed the "grandfather of the spetsnaz ". Following the entrance of the Soviet Union into World War II , basic forces dedicated to acts of reconnaissance and sabotage were formed under the supervision of the Second Department of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces , and were subordinate to

2040-459: The Russian Armed Forces that fall under GRU operational control during wartime operations: The navy also fields dedicated maritime sabotage and counter-sabotage diver units which are attached to the naval infantry . These units also include combat swimmers , trained to conduct underwater combat , mining and clearance diving . The task is to protect ships and other fleet assets from enemy frogmen and special forces. The term "combat swimmers"

2125-458: The Russian invasion of Ukraine in various roles. Spetsnaz units were sent in during the first days of the invasion as saboteurs disguised as civilians or Ukrainian military, while others were sent to capture or assassinate important Ukrainian government members, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , the President of Ukraine has alleged. Below is a list of current " Spetsnaz " units in

2210-709: The Soviet Armed Forces as a single military structure for the new Commonwealth of Independent States . The last Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union , Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov , was appointed supreme commander of the CIS Armed Forces in December 1991. Among the numerous treaties signed by the former republics, in order to direct the transition period, was a temporary agreement on general purpose forces, signed in Minsk on 14 February 1992. However, once it became clear that Ukraine (and potentially

2295-643: The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe also necessitated great adjustments. The Ministry of Defence newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda published a reform plan on 21 July 1992. Later one commentator said it was "hastily" put together by the General Staff "to satisfy the public demand for radical changes." The General Staff , from that point, became a bastion of conservatism, causing a build-up of troubles that later became critical. The reform plan advocated

2380-677: The Ukrainian military claimed that the Spetsnaz GRU was involved in attacks on an airport in Donetsk which was later captured by DPR in the battle . In late 2015, GRU special forces operators were reportedly involved in the Syrian Civil War , appearing in the government offensives of Aleppo and Homs . GRU officials have also visited Qamishli , near the border with Turkey . GRU special forces units participated in

2465-584: The dissolution of the Soviet Union . It is believed the special forces had participated in operations in more than nineteen countries around the world in Africa, Asia and South America. From time to time, the men also served as military instructors and set up training camps for Soviet-backed fighters in Vietnam and Angola . Following the deactivation of the Soviet GRU in 1992, control of the special forces

2550-516: The 103rd Arsenal at Saransk , Mordovia , and the 116th at Krasno-Oktyabrskiy were all in the Volga–Urals Military District . Since 2009, there have been a number of fires and explosions at GRAU ammunition storage depots. GRAU indices are of the form ⟨number⟩ ⟨letter⟩ ⟨number⟩ , sometimes with a further suffix ⟨letter⟩ ⟨number⟩ . They may be followed by

2635-633: The 53rd at Dzerzhinsk, Nizhniy Novogorod Oblast , the 55th in the Sklad-40 microraion at Rzhev , the 60th at Kaluga , the 63rd at Lipetsk , the 75th at Serpukhov south of Moscow, and the 97th at Skolin (all five in the Moscow Military District ). An additional possibly disused arsenal in the Moscow Military District is the 107th at Toropets . The 5th at Alatyr, Chuvash Republic , the 80th Arsenal at Gagarskiy,

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2720-543: The Armed Forces to the new opportunities and challenges they faced. The new Russian Ground Forces inherited an increasing crime problem from their Soviet predecessors. As draft resistance grew in the last years of the Soviet Union, the authorities tried to compensate by enlisting men with criminal records and who spoke little or no Russian. Crime rates soared, with the military procurator in Moscow in September 1990 reporting

2805-546: The Baltic States, and four military districts—totaling 57 divisions—were handed over to Belarus and Ukraine. Some idea of the scale of the withdrawal can be gained from the division list . For the dissolving Soviet Ground Forces, the withdrawal from the former Warsaw Pact states and the Baltic states was an extremely demanding, expensive, and debilitating process. As the military districts that remained in Russia after

2890-586: The Chechen capital. The 131st Motor Rifle Brigade was ordered to make a swift push for the centre of the city, but was then virtually destroyed in Chechen ambushes. After finally seizing Grozny amid fierce resistance, Russian troops moved on to other Chechen strongholds. When Chechen militants took hostages in the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in Stavropol Kray in June 1995, peace looked possible for

2975-425: The Ground Forces in 1994: The Russian barracks were spartan, with twenty beds lined up in a large room similar to what the U.S. Army had during World War II. The food in their mess halls was terrible. The Russian "training and exercises" we observed were not opportunities to improve capabilities or skills, but rote demonstrations, with little opportunity for maneuver or imagination. The military college classroom where

3060-559: The Ground Forces is based in Moscow . The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, the security of occupied territories, and the defeat of enemy troops. The Ground Forces must be able to achieve these goals both in nuclear war and non-nuclear war, especially without the use of weapons of mass destruction . Furthermore, they must be capable of protecting

3145-529: The Ground Forces, were involved in a confrontation with NATO. Parts of the 1st Separate Airborne Brigade of the Russian Airborne Forces raced to seize control of Pristina Airport in what became Kosovo , leading to the Incident at Pristina airport . The Second Chechen War began in August 1999 after Chechen militias invaded neighboring Dagestan , followed quickly in early September by

3230-537: The Kholodov case, there have been widespread rumours that GRU Spetsnaz personnel have been moonlighting as mafiya hitmen. Reports such as these continued. Some of the more egregious examples have included a constant-readiness motor rifle regiment's tanks running out of fuel on the firing ranges, due to the diversion of their fuel supplies to local businesses. Visiting the 20th Army in April 2002, Sergey Ivanov said

3315-665: The Ministry of Defence". The Ground Forces' prestige declined as a result, as the headquarters disbandment implied—at least in theory—that the Ground Forces no longer ranked equally with the Air Force and Navy. Under President Vladimir Putin , more funds were committed, the Ground Forces Headquarters was reestablished, and some progress on professionalisation occurred. Plans called for reducing mandatory service to 18 months in 2007, and to one year by 2008, but

3400-480: The Prosecutor General. Fridinsky also lambasted the military investigations department for their alleged lack of efficiency in investigative matters, with only one in six criminal cases being revealed. Military commanders were also accused of concealing crimes committed against servicemen from military officials. A major corruption scandal also occurred at the elite Lipetsk pilot training center , where

3485-537: The Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, and the defeat of enemy troops. The President of Russia is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation . The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces is the chief commanding authority of the Russian Ground Forces. He is appointed by the President of Russia. The Main Command of

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3570-546: The Russian backed government's success in the second war. In 2003, during the Second Chechen War, the GRU formed the Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad , two ethnic Chechen units that belonged to the Spetsnaz GRU which fought primarily in Chechnya , and also in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War as well as peacekeeping operations after the 2006 Lebanon War . Spetsnaz GRU maintains an airborne unit,

3655-539: The Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 after President Yeltsin issued an unconstitutional decree dissolving the Russian Parliament, following its resistance to Yeltsin's consolidation of power and his neo-liberal reforms. A group of deputies, including Vice President Alexander Rutskoi , barricaded themselves inside the parliament building. While giving public support to the President, the Armed Forces, led by General Grachev, tried to remain neutral, following

3740-617: The Separate Spetsnaz Airborne Reconnaissance Unit (codenamed No. 48427), which participated in the 2008 Georgian War . The unit is housed at Matrosskaya Tishina 10 in Moscow . During the period of insurgency in the North Caucasus region, Spetsnaz GRU along with special forces from the FSB and MVD conducted numerous special operations and counter-terrorism operations against mainly

3825-430: The U.S. Foreign Military Studies Office went as far as to say that the Armed Forces were "an institution increasingly defined by the high levels of military criminality and corruption embedded within it at every level." The FMSO noted that crime levels had always grown with social turbulence, such as the trauma Russia was passing through. The author identified four major types among the raft of criminality prevalent within

3910-554: The collapse of the Union consisted mostly of the mobile cadre formations, the Ground Forces were, to a large extent, created by relocating the formerly full-strength formations from Eastern Europe to under-resourced districts. However, the facilities in those districts were inadequate to house the flood of personnel and equipment returning from abroad, and many units "were unloaded from the rail wagons into empty fields." The need for destruction and transfer of large amounts of weaponry under

3995-710: The commanders of Fronts . The primary function of Spetsnaz troops in wartime was infiltration/insertion behind enemy lines (either in uniform or civilian clothing), usually well before hostilities are scheduled to begin and, once in place, to commit acts of sabotage such as the destruction of vital communications logistics centers, as well as the assassination of key government leaders and military officers. Spetsnaz GRU training included: weapons handling, fast rappelling , explosives training, marksmanship, counter-terrorism , airborne training, hand-to-hand combat , climbing (alpine rope techniques), diving, underwater combat, emergency medical training, and demolition . The situation

4080-409: The country and that, at the same time, they are also dangerous for Russia. Top military personnel demonstrate neither the will nor the ability to effect fundamental changes." More money is arriving both for personnel and equipment; Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated in June 2008 that monetary allowances for servicemen in permanent-readiness units will be raised significantly. In May 2007, it

4165-516: The deputy commander, the chief of staff and other officers allegedly extorted 3 million roubles of premium pay from other officers since the beginning of 2010. The Tambov military garrison prosecutor confirmed that charges have been lodged against those involved. The affair came to light after a junior officer wrote about the extortion in his personal blog. Sergey Fridinskiy, the Main Military Prosecutor acknowledged that extortion in

4250-400: The distribution of supplementary pay in army units is common, and that "criminal cases on the facts of extortion are being investigated in practically every district and fleet." In August 2012, Prosecutor General Fridinsky again reported a rise in crime, with murders rising more than half, bribery cases doubling, and drug trafficking rising by 25% in the first six months of 2012 as compared to

4335-469: The drafted private." The Ground Forces' performance in the First Chechen War has been assessed by a British academic as "appallingly bad". Writing six years later, Michael Orr said "one of the root causes of the Russian failure in 1994–96 was their inability to raise and deploy a properly trained military force." Then Lieutenant Colonel Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army had the chance to visit

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4420-419: The early 1990s eventuated, for three reasons: Firstly, there was an absence of firm civilian political guidance, with President Yeltsin primarily interested in ensuring that the Armed Forces were controllable and loyal, rather than reformed. Secondly, declining funding worsened the progress. Finally, there was no firm consensus within the military about what reforms should be implemented. General Pavel Grachev ,

4505-664: The end of that month, the fighting ended. The formal ceasefire was signed in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt on 31 August 1996, stipulating that a formal agreement on relations between the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Russian federal government need not be signed until late 2001. Writing some years later, Dmitri Trenin and Aleksei Malashenko described the Russian military's performance in Chechniya as "grossly deficient at all levels, from commander-in-chief to

4590-677: The first spetsnaz force in the Soviet Union , formed in 1949 as the military force of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the foreign military-intelligence agency of the Soviet Armed Forces . The force was designed in the context of the Cold War to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage against enemy targets in the form of special reconnaissance and direct-action attacks. The Spetsnaz GRU inspired additional spetsnaz forces attached to other Soviet intelligence agencies, such as Vympel (founded in 1981) and

4675-410: The first Russian Minister of Defence (1992–96), broadly advertised reforms, yet wished to preserve the old Soviet-style Army, with large numbers of low-strength formations and continued mass conscription. The General Staff and the armed services tried to preserve Soviet-era doctrines, deployments, weapons, and missions in the absence of solid new guidance. British military expert Michael Orr claims that

4760-419: The first Spetsnaz battalions were formed under the GRU, five to operate beyond the 150–200 km range of the reconnaissance companies. The first brigades were formed in 1962, reportedly to reach up to 750 kilometres in the rear to destroy U.S. weapons systems such as the MGM-52 Lance , MGM-29 Sergeant , and MGM-31 Pershing . Two 'study regiments' were established in the 1960s to train specialists and NCOs,

4845-422: The first in 1968 at Pechora near Pskov , and the second in 1970 at Chirchik near Tashkent . According to Vladimir Rezun, a GRU defector who used the pseudonym " Viktor Suvorov ", there were 20 GRU Spetsnaz brigades plus 41 separate companies at the time of his defection in 1978. The first major foreign operation of the unit came in August 1968, when Moscow decided to crack down on the Prague Spring and move

4930-422: The forces—weapons trafficking and the arms trade; business and commercial ventures; military crime beyond Russia's borders; and contract murder. Weapons disappearances began during the dissolution of the Union and has continued. Within units "rations are sold while soldiers grow hungry ... [while] fuel, spare parts, and equipment can be bought." Meanwhile, voyemkomats take bribes to arrange avoidance of service, or

5015-508: The former commander in Germany, General Matvey Burlakov , and the Defence Minister, Pavel Grachev , had their involvement exposed. They were also accused of ordering the murder of reporter Dmitry Kholodov , who had been investigating the scandals. In December 1996, Defence Minister Igor Rodionov ordered the dismissal of the Commander of the Ground Forces, General Vladimir Semyonov , for activities incompatible with his position — reportedly his wife's business activities. A 1995 study by

5100-409: The hierarchy had great difficulty in fully understanding the changed situation, due to their education. As graduates of Soviet military academies , they received great operational and staff training, but in political terms they had learned an ideology, rather than a wide understanding of international affairs. Thus, the generals—focused on NATO expansion in Eastern Europe—could not adapt themselves and

5185-415: The hierarchy on trying to force contract soldiers into the old conscript pattern, there is little hope of a fundamental strengthening of the Ground Forces. He further elaborated that they are expected to remain, to some extent, a military liability and "Russia's most urgent social problem" for some time to come. Goltz summed up by saying: "All of this means that the Russian armed forces are not ready to defend

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5270-526: The invitation of the Commander of the Ground Forces, "Colonel-General (corresponding to an American lieutenant general) Aleksandr Streitsov . ..[A]t preliminary meetings" with the Embassy of the United States, Moscow , the U.S. Defence Attache told Hertling that the Ground Forces "while still substantive in quantity, continued to decline in capability and quality. My subsequent visits to the schools and units [Colonel General] Streitsov chose reinforced these conclusions. The classroom discussions were sophomoric, and

5355-427: The national interests of Russia within the framework of its international obligations. The Main Command of the Ground Forces is officially tasked with the following objectives: It should be clearly noted that Spetsnaz GRU , most special forces, are under the control of the Main Reconnaissance Directorate (GRU), now the Main Directorate of the General Staff . As the Soviet Union dissolved, efforts were made to keep

5440-419: The new structure proved to be rare, irregular, and sometimes reversed. The new brigades that appeared were mostly divisions that had broken down until they happened to be at the proposed brigade strengths. New divisions—such as the new 3rd Motor Rifle Division in the Moscow Military District , formed on the basis of disbanding tank formations—were formed, rather than new brigades. Few of the reforms planned in

5525-400: The other republics) was determined to undermine the concept of joint general purpose forces and form their own armed forces, the new Russian government moved to form its own armed forces. Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree forming the Russian Ministry of Defence on 7 May 1992, establishing the Russian Ground Forces along with the other branches of the Russian Armed Forces . At

5610-431: The overall impact of theft and fraud is much greater than that which is actually detected". Chief Military Prosecutor Sergey Fridinskiy said in March 2007 that there was "no systematic work in the Armed Forces to prevent embezzlement". In March 2011, Military Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky reported that crimes had been increasing steadily in the Russian ground forces for the past 18 months, with 500 crimes reported in

5695-438: The parliament building had been stormed, the parliamentary leaders arrested, and temporary censorship imposed, Yeltsin succeeded in retaining power. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Chechens declared independence in November 1991, under the leadership of a former Air Forces officer, General Dzhokar Dudayev . The continuation of Chechen independence was seen as reducing Moscow's authority; Chechnya became perceived as

5780-493: The period of January to March 2011 alone. Twenty servicemen were crippled and two killed in the same period as a result. Crime in the ground forces was up 16% in 2010 as compared to 2009, with crimes against other servicemen constituting one in every four cases reported. Compounding this problem was also a rise in "extremist" crimes in the ground forces, with " servicemen from different ethnic groups or regions trying to enforce their own rules and order in their units ", according to

5865-435: The reorganization, the 4-chain command structure ( military district – field army – division – regiment ) that was used until then was replaced with a 3-chain structure: strategic command – operational command – brigade. Brigades are supposed to be used as mobile permanent-readiness units capable of fighting independently with the support of highly mobile task forces or together with other brigades under joint command. In

5950-445: The same period in the previous year. Following the release of these statistics, the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia denounced the conditions in the Armed Forces as a "crime against humanity". In July 2013, the Prosecutor General of Russia 's office revealed that corruption in the same year had grown 5.5 times as compared to the previous year, costing the Russian government 4.4 billion rubles (US$ 130 million). It

6035-409: The same source point out that the Russian Armed Forces faced major disruption in 2008, as demographic change hindered plans to reduce the term of conscription from two years to one. A major reorganisation of the force began in 2007 by the Minister for Defence Anatoliy Serdyukov , with the aim of converting all divisions into brigades, and cutting surplus officers and establishments. In the course of

6120-865: The same time, the General Staff was in the process of withdrawing tens of thousands of personnel from the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany , the Northern Group of Forces in Poland, the Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia, the Southern Group of Forces in Hungary, and from Mongolia. Thirty-seven Soviet Ground Forces divisions had to be withdrawn from the four groups of forces and

6205-512: The troops of Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia . The Spetsnaz GRU was tasked with capturing the Prague Airport . On the night of 21 August, a Soviet passenger plane requested an emergency landing at Prague Airport, allegedly due to engine failure. After landing, the commandos, without firing a shot, seized the airport and took over air traffic control. At the same time, other Spetsnaz GRU units that had infiltrated into Prague

6290-469: The units in training were going through the motions of their scripts with no true training value or combined arms interaction—infantry, armor, artillery, air, and resupply all trained separately." After Sergey Shoygu took over the role of Ministry of Defence , the reforms Serdyukov had implemented were reversed. He also aimed to restore trust with senior officers as well as the Ministry of Defence in

6375-541: The volume of theft was "simply impermissible". Ivanov said that 20,000 servicemen were wounded or injured in 2002 as a result of accidents or criminal activity across the entire armed forces - so the ground forces figure would be less. Abuse of personnel, sending soldiers to work outside units—a long-standing tradition which could see conscripts doing things ranging from being large scale manpower supply for commercial businesses to being officers' families' servants—is now banned by Sergei Ivanov's Order 428 of October 2005. What

6460-601: The wake of the intense resentment Serduykov's reforms had generated. He did this a number of ways but one of the ways was integrating himself by wearing a military uniform . Spetsnaz GRU Spetsnaz GRU , formally known as Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces , ( Russian : Части и подразделения специального назначения Главного управления Генерального штаба Вооружённых сил Российской Федерации )

6545-513: The wishes of the officer corps. The military leadership were unsure of both the rightness of Yeltsin's cause and the reliability of their forces, and had to be convinced at length by Yeltsin to attack the parliament. When the attack was finally mounted, forces from five different divisions around Moscow were used, and the personnel involved were mostly officers and senior non-commissioned officers . There were also indications that some formations deployed into Moscow only under protest. However, once

6630-421: Was also revealed that total number of registered crimes in the Russian armed forces had declined in the same period, although one in five crimes registered were corruption-related. "In 2019, Chief Military Prosecutor Valery Petrov reported that some $ 110 million had been lost due to corruption in the military departments and the number was on the uptick." The Russian Ground Forces reluctantly became involved in

6715-414: Was announced that enlisted pay would rise to 65,000 roubles (US$ 2,750) per month, and the pay of officers on combat duty in rapid response units would rise to 100,000–150,000 roubles (US$ 4,230–$ 6,355) per month. However, while the move to one year conscript service would disrupt dedovshchina , it is unlikely that bullying will disappear altogether without significant societal change. Other assessments from

6800-571: Was crippled. Most of the prominent past Chechen separatist leaders had died or been killed, including former President Aslan Maskhadov and leading warlord and terrorist attack mastermind Shamil Basayev . However, small-scale conflict continued to drag on; as of November 2007, it had spread across other parts of the Russian Caucasus . It was a divisive struggle, with at least one senior military officer dismissed for being unresponsive to government commands: General Colonel Gennady Troshev

6885-544: Was dismissed in 2002 for refusing to move from command of the North Caucasus Military District to command of the less important Siberian Military District. The Second Chechen War was officially declared ended on 16 April 2009. When Igor Sergeyev arrived as Minister of Defence in 1997, he initiated what were seen as real reforms under very difficult conditions. The number of military educational establishments, virtually unchanged since 1991,

6970-618: Was reduced, and the amalgamation of the Siberian and Trans-Baikal Military Districts was ordered. A larger number of army divisions were given "constant readiness" status, which was supposed to bring them up to 80 percent manning and 100 percent equipment holdings. Sergeyev announced in August 1998 that there would be six divisions and four brigades on 24-hour alert by the end of that year. Three levels of forces were announced; constant readiness, low-level, and strategic reserves. However, personnel quality—even in these favored units—continued to be

7055-652: Was reversed in 2013 and Spetsnaz GRU units were reassigned to their original GRU divisions. Throughout the mid-1990s to the 2000s, Spetsnaz GRU were involved in both the First Chechen War and more prominently in the Second Chechen War and also the Invasion of Dagestan in August 1999. The special forces learned invaluable lessons from the first war and transformed into a better and more effective fighting force and were instrumental in Russia's and

7140-479: Was reviewed after the war ended, and between 1947 and 1950 the whole of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) was reorganized. The first "independent reconnaissance companies of special purpose" were formed in 1949, to work for tank and combined-arms armies, which were tasked to eliminate amongst others enemy nuclear weapons systems such as the MGR-3 Little John and MGM-1 Matador . In 1957,

7225-513: Was transferred to the newly formed G.U. of Russia and were maintained to their respective assigned units as before. According to Stanislav Lunev , who defected to the U.S. in 1992, the GRU also commanded some 25,000 Spetsnaz troops as of 1997. Following the 2008 Russian military reform , a brand new Directorate of Special Operations was established in 2009 following studies of American and various Western special operations forces units and commands. The newly formed Special Operations Forces which

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