Spetsnaz
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Spetsnaz[note 1] (Russian: Спецназ), are special forces in many post-Soviet states. Historically, this term referred to the Soviet Union's Spetsnaz GRU, special operations units of the GRU, the main military intelligence service. Today it refers to special forces branches and task forces subordinate to ministries including defence, internal affairs, or emergency situations in countries that have inherited their special purpose units from the now-defunct Soviet security agencies.
Etymology
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2022) |
The Russian abbreviations spetsnaz and osnaz are
In Ukrainian they are known as spetspryz (спецприз), an abbreviation of viiska spetsiialnoho pryznachennia (війська спеціяльного призначення).
They are general terms that were used for a variety of Soviet
Spetsnaz later referred specifically to special (spetsialnogo) purpose (naznacheniya) or special operations (spetsoperatsiya; spec ops) forces, and the word's widespread use is a relatively recent, post-
History and known operations
The
Early Soviet Union
The origins of the Spetsnaz can be found in the Russian Civil War. To act against anti-Communist workers and farmers, the Soviet regime set up so called Tschasti Osobogo Nasatschenia (Units for special use) in 1918. In the next year they were expanded to the so-called Cheka (The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission), fighting counterrevolution and (alleged) sabotage. They took part in the Kronstadt rebellion 1921, setting up machine guns behind units of the Red Army, to "increase their motivation". The GRU and NKVD descended from the Cheka. Since 1927 Russians were experimenting with parachutes. Airborne units were used against central Asian and Afghan insurgents.
Second World War and Spanish Civil War
The Soviet leadership had an urgent need for intelligence on German land forces in
Initially the unit was confined to performing small scale reconnaissance missions, platoon sized insertions by sea and on occasion on land into Finland and later Norway.[3] They began conducting sabotage missions and raids to snatch prisoners for interrogation.[3] They would also destroy German ammunition and supply depots, communication centers, and harass enemy troop concentrations along the Finnish and Russian coasts.[5] When the European conflict ended, the Naval Scouts were sent to fight the Japanese. Leonov along with Capt. Kulebyakin and 140 men, landed on a Japanese airfield at Port Vonsan, not realizing they were opposed by over 3,500 enemy soldiers. A tense standoff ensued, until the commanding officers of the unit managed to bluff the Japanese forces into surrendering.[6]
Army
Each Soviet front/army up to 1942 had their own independent guard-battalion (Otdelnly Gwardieskij Batalion Minerow), OGBM, so called miners, for reconnaissance and commando missions. The soldiers had to be younger than 30, were mostly athletes or hunters and had to identify 100% with their mission. Many exhausted and wounded soldiers were, even in training, left to their own devices. The selection methods qualified the troops as elite but caused high numbers of casualties. The "miners" infiltrated foreign-occupied areas by air and land, and cooperated with, and trained, local partisans.
Immediately before the major Russian offensive at Smolesk in 1943, 316 OGBM were dropped by parachute in nine groups. Up to 300 km behind the enemy lines, they blew up 700 km of railways in cooperation with local partisans, using 3,500 explosive charges.[2]
Cold War
By the end of the Second World War the Soviet Union dissolved most of the special units. At the end of the 1950s the KGB and GRU set up new special forces units. The 3rd guard special-reconnaissance-brigade was founded in 1966, being stationed with the Soviet forces in East Germany in Fürstenberg/Havel.[citation needed]
The Crabb Affair
Lieutenant-Commander Lionel Crabb was a British Royal Navy frogman and MI6 diver who vanished during a reconnaissance mission around a Soviet cruiser berthed at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1956. In November 2007 the BBC and the Daily Mirror reported that Eduard Koltsov, a former Soviet frogman, claimed to have caught Crabb placing a mine on the Ordzhonikidze hull near the ammunition depot and cut his throat. In an interview for a Russian documentary film, Koltsov showed the dagger he allegedly used, as well as an Order of the Red Star medal that Koltsov claimed to have been awarded for the deed.[7][8] Koltsov, 74 at the time of the interview, stated that he wanted to clear his conscience and make known exactly what happened to Crabb.[9] (It is perhaps worth noting that Peter Mercer of the Special Boat Service describes this incident in his autobiography: "The cruiser [Ordzhonikidze] was carrying the two Soviet leaders, Khrushchev and Bulganin, on a goodwill visit to Britain. His [Crabb's] task was to measure the cruiser's propeller and to discover how the ship managed to travel at twice the speed originally estimated by British naval intelligence.")
Prague Spring
The Warsaw pact invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 to stop the "Socialism with a Human Face" movement. Spetsnaz units secured key points in the capital, Prague, seizing the airport, bridges, radio stations and the president's palace.[2]
Spetsnaz in Vietnam and Laos
Some 3,300 Soviet military experts, among them spetsnaz, were sent to Southeast Asia during the
Their mission was twofold: One, to help a communist nation defeat an American ally, and two, test and evaluate their most sophisticated radars and missiles directly against the best American aircraft had to offer. Soviets recovered at least two very important pieces of American equipment, a cryptographic code machine, and an F-111A escape capsule, which now sits in a Moscow Museum.[10]
Soviet–Afghan War
Soviet Spetsnaz forces took part in the
The operation involved approximately 660 Soviet operators dressed in Afghan uniforms, including ca. 50
In the first one and a half years of the war, Spetsnaz units in the form of the 459th special forces company, were exclusively responsible for reconnaissance missions and intelligence gathering for the 40th Army.[12] Aside from reconnaissance, the 459th was also tasked with capturing prisoners, kidnapping enemy agents, and targeted assassination of leaders and field commanders of the Mujahideen.
Caravan war
By 1985, the GRU had expanded its special forces footprint to two Spetsnaz brigades in Afghanistan, comprising just under 5,000 troops. These were the:[12]
- 154th Oospn
- 177th Oospn
- 334th Oospn
- 668th Oospn
- 173rd Oospn
- 186th Oospn
- 370th Oospn
- 411th Oospn
The Spetsnaz often conducted missions to ambush and destroy enemy supply convoys.
- 15th Spetsnaz Brigade – 355 killed and 10 missing.
- 22nd Spetsnaz Brigade – 199 killed and one missing.
- 459th Spetsnaz Company – 16 killed.
In May 1986, the Spetsnaz also succeeded in inserting air-assault forces into remote regions in Konar Valley near Barikot which were previously considered inaccessible to Soviet forces.[16]
Alleged conflict with Pakistani commandos
It is believed that during the war in Afghanistan, Soviet special forces came in direct conflict with Pakistan Army's special forces, the Special Service Group. This unit was deployed disguised as Afghans, supporting the Mujahideen fighting the Soviets. A battle reported as having been fought between the Pakistanis and Soviet troops took place in Kunar Province in March 1986. According to Soviet sources, the battle was actually fought between the GRU's 15th Spetsnaz Brigade, and the Usama Bin Zaid regiment of Afghan Mujahideen under Commander Assadullah, belonging to Abdul rub a-Rasul Sayyaf's faction.[17] Fighting is also alleged to have taken place during Operation Magistral where over 200 Mujahideen were killed in a failed attempt to capture the strategic Hill 3234 near the Pakistani border from a 39-man Soviet Airborne company.
The Beirut hostage crisis
In October 1985, specialist operators from the KGB's
Russian sources indicate that the release of the Soviet hostages was the result of extensive diplomatic negotiations with the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who appealed to King Hussein of Jordan and the leaders of Libya and Iran to use their influence on the kidnappers.[20]
Either way, the show of brutal force had its effect, and for the next 20 years no Soviet or Russian officials were taken captive, until June 2006.[19]
After the breakup of Soviet Union
After the collapse of the USSR, spetsnaz forces of the Soviet Union's newly formed republics took part in many local conflicts such as the
Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis
The crisis took place from 14 June to 19 June 1995, when a group of 80 to 200 Chechen terrorists led by Shamil Basayev attacked the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk, where they stormed the main police station and the city hall. After several hours of fighting and Russian reinforcements imminent, the Chechens retreated to the residential district and regrouped in the city hospital, where they took between 1,500 and 1,800 hostages, most of them civilians (including about 150 children and a number of women with newborn infants).[22]
After three days of siege, the Russian authorities ordered the security forces to retake the hospital compound. The forces deployed were elite personnel from the Federal Security Service's Alpha Group, alongside MVD militsiya and Internal Troops. The strike force attacked the hospital compound at dawn on the fourth day, meeting fierce resistance. After several hours of fighting in which many hostages were killed by crossfire, a local ceasefire was agreed, and 227 hostages were released; 61 others were freed by the Russian forces.
A second Russian attack on the hospital a few hours later also failed and so did a third, resulting in even more casualties. The Russian authorities accused the Chechens of using the hostages as human shields.
According to official figures, 129 civilians were killed and 415 were injured in the entire event (of whom 18 later died of their wounds).[23] This includes at least 105 hostage fatalities.[22] However, according to an independent estimate 166 hostages were killed and 541 injured in the special forces attack on the hospital.[24][25] At least 11 Russian police officers and 14 soldiers were killed.[22] Basayev's force suffered 11 men killed and one missing; most of their bodies were returned to Chechnya in a special freezer truck. In the years following the hostage-taking, more than 40 of the surviving attackers were tracked down and have been assassinated, including Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev in 2002 and Shamil Basayev in 2006, and more than 20 were sentenced, by the Stavropol territorial court, to various terms of imprisonment.
Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis
The mass
Second Chechen War
Russian special forces were instrumental in Russia's and the Kremlin backed government's success in the
Moscow theatre hostage crisis
The crisis was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theatre on 23 October 2002 by 40 to 50 armed
Due to the disposition of the theatre, special forces would have had to fight through 100 feet (30 m) of corridor and attack up a well defended staircase, before they could reach the hall in where the hostages were held. The terrorists also had explosive devices. The most powerful of these was in the center of the
During the raid, all of the attackers were killed, with no casualties among spetsnaz, but about 130 hostages, including nine foreigners, died due to poor first aid after falling unconscious from the gas. Most died after being evacuated from the theatre and laid outside on their backs instead of in the approved recovery position and then choking to death. Russian security agencies refused to disclose the gas used in the attack leading to doctors in local hospitals being unable to respond adequately to the influx of casualties.[29] All but two of the hostages who died during the siege were killed by the toxic substance pumped into the theatre to subdue the militants.[30][31] The use of the gas was widely condemned as heavy-handed.[32]
Physicians in Moscow condemned the refusal to disclose the identity of the gas that prevented them from saving more lives. Some reports said the drug naloxone was used to save some hostages.[33]
Beslan school siege
Also referred to as the Beslan massacre
The crisis began when a group of armed radical Islamist combatants, mostly Ingush and Chechen, occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of
On the third day of the standoff, counter terrorism units stormed the building using heavy weapons after several explosions rocked the building and children started escaping. It was in this chaos most of the officers were killed, trying to protect escaping children from gun fire.[39][40] At least 334 hostages were killed as a result of the crisis, including 186 children.[41][42] Official reports on how many members of Russia's special forces died in the fighting varied from 11, 12, 16 (7 Alpha and 9 Vega) to more than 20[43] killed. There are only 10 names on the special forces monument in Beslan.[44] The fatalities included all three commanders of the assault group: Colonel Oleg Ilyin, Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Razumovsky of Vega, and Major Alexander Perov of Alpha.[45] At least 30 commandos suffered serious wounds.[46]
Lessons learned
By the mid-2000s, the special forces gained a firm upper hand over separatists and terrorist attacks in Russia dwindled, falling from 257 in 2005 to 48 in 2007. Military analyst
From 2009, the level of terrorism in Russia increased again. Particularly worrisome was the increase in suicide attacks. While between February 2005 and August 2008, no civilians were killed in such attacks, in 2008 at least 17 were killed and in 2009 the number rose to 45.[50] In March 2010, Islamist militants organised the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings, which killed 40 people. One of the two blasts took place at Lubyanka station, near the FSB headquarters. Militant leader Doku Umarov—dubbed "Russia's Osama bin Laden"—took responsibility for the attacks. In July 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev expanded the FSB's powers in its fight against terrorism.
In 2011, Federal Security Service exposed 199 foreign spies, including 41 professional spies and 158 agents employed by foreign intelligence services.
Anti terrorist operations prior to 2014 Sochi Olympics
Olympic organizers received several threats prior to the Games. In a July 2013 video release, Chechen Islamist commander Dokka Umarov called for attacks on the Games, stating that the Games were being staged "
In response to the insurgent threats, Russian special forces cracked down on suspected terrorist organizations, making several arrests and claiming to have curbed several plots,[53] and killed numerous Islamist leaders including Eldar Magatov, a suspect in attacks on Russian targets and alleged leader of an insurgent group in the Babyurt district of Dagestan.[54] Dokka Umarov himself was poisoned on 6 August 2013, and died on 7 September 2013.[55]
Insurgency in the Caucasus
Although crime has been markedly reduced and stability increased throughout Russia compared to the previous year, about 350 militants in the North Caucasus have been killed in anti-terror operations in the first four months of 2014, according to an announcement by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev in the State Duma.[56]
On 23 September 2014, Russian news agencies marked the 15th anniversary of the formation of the Unified Group of Troops (OGV, or ОГВ) in the North Caucasus. The OGV is the inter-service headquarters established at Khankala, Chechnya to command all Russian (MOD, MVD, FSB) operations from the start of the second Chechen war in 1999.
Since its inception, the OGV combined operations has conducted 40,000 special missions, destroyed 5,000 bases and caches, confiscated 30,000 weapons, and disarmed 80,000 explosive devices and in the process has killed over 10,000 insurgents in the time frame of 15 years. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) noted that the decoration Hero of the Russian Federation has been awarded to 93 MVD servicemen in the OGV (including 66 posthumously). Overall, more than 23,000 MVD troops have received honors for their conduct during operations.[57]
Russian spetsnaz forces participated in the 2014 Grozny clashes.[citation needed]
Russo-Ukrainian War
According to multiple Western sources and Ukraine, Spetsnaz unit of the VDV RF took part in the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On or about 26 February 2022, during the
On or about 2 March 2022, the
As of September 22, 2023, 495 members of the Russian special purpose community have been confirmed KIA. This includes
Syrian Civil War
"War on the Rocks" reports that various Russian special missions units have been openly supporting Syrian army units, and along with the Russian Aerospace Forces, have been invaluable in pushing back anti-government forces.[67]
At the peak of the deployment, there was a detachment of approximately 250
Structure
Soviet Union
The Russian military theorist Colonel Mikhail Svechnykov originally proposed the concept of using special tactics and strategies. Svechnykov (executed during the Great Purge in 1938), envisaged the development of unconventional warfare capabilities to overcome disadvantages faced by conventional forces in the field. In the 1930s the "grandfather of the spetsnaz", Ilya Starinov,[69] began the implementation of the idea.[70]
During World War II,
In 1950 Georgy Zhukov advocated the creation of 46 military spetsnaz companies, each consisting of 120 servicemen. This was the first use of "spetsnaz" to denote a separate military branch since World War II. These companies were later expanded to battalions and then to brigades. However, some separate companies (orSpN) and detachments (ooSpN) existed with brigades until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The special-purpose forces of the Armed Forces of the
Twenty-four years after the birth of spetsnaz, the Chairman of the KGB General
KGB
Spetsgruppa 'A' (
Spetsgruppa "V", abbreviation of the Directorate в (Russian Cyrillic for V), also known as "Vega" in period 1993–1995, was formed in 1981, merging two elite Cold War-era KGB special units—Cascade (Kaskad) and Zenith (Zenit)—which were similar to the CIA's
MVD
These were special forces of the
Post-Soviet
During the 1990s special detachments were established within the
In total, by December 1991, at the time of the collapse of the USSR, the GRU reconnaissance and sabotage formations had:
- 14 special purpose brigades
- 2 special purposes regiments
- 29 independent special purpose companies
- 5 naval reconnaissance point
In Russia, in 2013 a Special Operations Forces Command was established for Special Operations Forces which had earlier been established from around 2009 following a study of Western special-operations forces units and commands. The Command was not under the control of the GRU but reported directly to the General Staff – as did the GRU.[72]
Belarusian spetsnaz
The 5th Spetsnaz Brigade is a special forces brigade of the Armed Forces of Belarus, formerly part of the Soviet spetsnaz.[73] In addition, the State Security Committee (KGB) of Belarus that was formed from the inherited personnel and operators after the break up of the Soviet Union. KGB of Belarus has its own Spetsgruppa "A" (Alpha Group), which is the country's primary counter-terrorism unit.[74]
Kazakh spetsnaz
As with many post Soviet states, Kazakhstan adopted the term
Kokhzal (meaning wolf pack in Kazakh language) is a special forces unit of Kazakhstan responsible for carrying out anti terror operations as well as serving as a protection detail for the President of Kazakhstan.[77]
Russian spetsnaz after 2010
Administrative History
The elite units of the
Training
The FSB Spetsnaz maintain a training base near the village of Averkyevo.[81] There is a "killing house" providing training similar to the SAS close to Moscow.
Uniform
Russian special forces wear different berets depending on the branch of the armed forces they belong to. These include:
- Ground Forces and Airborne Forces – Blue beret
- Marines – Black beret
- National Guard – Maroon beret
Structure
Ground Forces
- Main Intelligence Directorate(G.R.U)
- Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces(Spetsnaz GRU)
Following units belong to their specific military branches, but come under GRU operational control during wartime operations.
- Russian Ground Forces[85] – fields 7 spetsnaz brigades of varying sizes and one spetsnaz regiment.
- 2nd Special Purpose Brigade – based in Promezhitsa, Pskov Oblast
- Brigade HQ
- Signals Battalion (2x Company)
- Support Company
- 70th Special Purpose Detachment
- 329th Special Purpose Detachment
- 700th Special Purpose Detachment
- Training Battalion (2x Company)
- Brigade HQ
- 3rd Special Purpose Brigade – based in Tolyatti
- Brigade HQ
- Signals Company
- Special Weapons Company
- Support Company
- Logistics Company
- 1st Special Purpose Detachment (1st Battalion)
- 790th Special Purpose Detachment (2nd Battalion)
- 791st Special Purpose Detachment (3rd Battalion)
- Training School
- Brigade HQ
- 10th Special Purpose Brigade – based in Mol'kino, Krasnoyarsk Territory
- Brigade HQ
- Signals Company
- Special Weapons Company
- Support Company
- Logistics Company
- K-9 Unit
- 325th Special Purpose Detachment
- 328th Special Purpose Detachment
- Training Battalion (2x Company)
- Brigade HQ
- 14th Special Purpose Brigade – based in Ussuriysk
- Brigade HQ
- Signals Company
- Logistics Company
- 282nd Special Purpose Detachment
- 294th Special Purpose Detachment
- 308th Special Purpose Detachment
- Training Battalion (2x Company)
- Brigade HQ
- 16th Special Purpose Brigade – based in Tambov, with all units deployed in Tambov except for the 664th SPD.[86]
- Brigade HQ
- EOD company
- Signals Company
- Logistics Company
- 370th Special Purpose Detachment
- 379th Special Purpose Detachment
- 585th Special Purpose Detachment
- 664th Special Purpose Detachment
- 669th Special Purpose Detachment
- Brigade HQ
- 22nd Special Purpose Brigade – entire unit is based in Stepnoi, Rostov Oblast[87][88]
- Brigade HQ
- Signals Company
- Support Company
- Special Weapons Company
- Logistics Unit
- Engineer Unit
- 108th Special Purpose Detachment
- 173rd Special Purpose Detachment
- 305th Special Purpose Detachment
- 411th Special Purpose Detachment
- Brigade HQ
- 24th Special Purpose Brigade – based in Irkutsk, with all units and units deployed in Irkutsk[89]
- Brigade HQ
- Signals Company
- Special Weapons Company
- Logistics Unit
- 281st Special Purpose Detachment
- 297th Special Purpose Detachment
- 641th Special Purpose Detachment
- Brigade HQ
- 25th Special Purpose Regiment in Stavropol
- Russian Airborne Troops[citation needed]
- 45th Special Purpose Airborne Brigade
- Naval Special Reconnaissance (OMRP)[citation needed] – Reconnaissance divers under operational subordination to the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
- 42nd Marine Reconnaissance point (Pacific Fleet)
- 388th Marine Reconnaissance point (Black Sea Fleet) – reorganized from the former 431st MRP
- 420th Marine Reconnaissance point (Northern Fleet)
- 561st Marine Reconnaissance point (Baltic Fleet)
The
- 101st PDSS Detachment – based in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
- 102nd PDSS Detachment – based in Sevastopol
- 136th PDSS Detachment – based in Novorossiysk
- 137th PDSS Detachment – based in Makhachkala
- 140th PDSS Detachment – based in Vidyayevo
- 152nd PDSS Detachment – based in Polyarny, Murmansk Oblast
- 153rd PDSS Detachment – based in Ostrovnoy, Murmansk Oblast
- 159th PDSS Detachment – based in Razboynik
- 160th PDSS Detachment – based in Murmansk
- 269th PDSS Detachment – based in Gadzhiyevo
- 311th PDSS Detachment – based in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
- 313rd PDSS Detachment – based in Baltiysk
- 473rd PDSS Detachment – based in Kronstadt
Russian special forces of the FSB
The Centre of Special Operations of the FSB TsSN FSB, центр специального назначения ФСБ) is officially tasked with combating terrorism and protecting the constitutional order of the Russian Federation. The TsSN FSB consists of estimated 4,000 operators[91] in at least 5 operative divisions:
- Directorate "A" (Spetsgruppa Alpha)
- Directorate "V" (Spetsgruppa Vympel)
- Directorate "S" (Spetsgruppa Smerch – Special Operations Executive – SOE) – TsSN of Moscow city and Moscow Oblast
- Directorate "K" (Spetsgruppa Kavkaz) – formerly Special Purpose unit for the city of Yessentuki
- Directorate "T" (Spetsgruppa Tavrida) (Crimea, previously – 2nd service "SN" of FSB)
- Sn SV - Service of Use of Special Weapons
TsSN FSB headquarters is a large complex of buildings and training areas, with dozens of hectares of land and scores of training facilities. The average training period for a TsSN officer is about five years.[92]
Spetsgruppa 'A' (
Spetsgruppa "V", abbreviation of the Directorate в (Russian Cyrillic for V), also known as "Vega" in period 1993–1995, was formed in 1981, continues the lineage of two elite Cold War-era KGB special units—Cascade (Kaskad) and Zenith (Zenit). Its modern function is the protection of strategic installations, such as factories and transportation centers. With its Alpha counterparts, it is heavily used in the North Caucasus. Vympel has four operative units in Moscow, with branch offices in nearly every city containing a nuclear power plant.
Spetsgruppa "S", abbreviation of the Directorate C (Russian Cyrillic for S), also known as Smerch, but also known as the Special Operations Executive (SOE), is a relatively new unit formed in July 1999. Officers from Smerch are frequently involved with the capture and transfer of various bandit and criminal leaders who help aid disruption in the North Caucasus and throughout Russia. Operations include both direct action against bandit holdouts in Southern Russia as well as high-profile arrests in more densely populated cities and guarding government officials. Because of its initials, this group is casually referred to as "Smerch". With the Centre of Special Operations and its elite units, many FSB special forces units operate at the regional level. These detachments are usually known as ROSN or ROSO (Regional Department of Special Designation), such as Saint Petersburg's Grad (Hail) or Murmansk's Kasatka (Orca).
Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia
The SVR RF, formerly the First Chief Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, has its own top secret elite special force within the Operations Department of Directorate Z known as Zaslon (Заслон) (meaning Screen, Barrier or Shield) about which extremely little is known. Formerly in PGU KGB SSSR called Vympel (e.g. French counterpart; Action Division).
However, mere existence of such group within SVR is denied by Russian authorities. Nevertheless, there were some rumors that such group does indeed exist and is assigned to execute very specific special operations abroad primarily for protection of Russian embassy personnel and internal investigations. It is believed that the group is deep undercover and consists of approximately 300–500 highly experienced operatives speaking several languages and having extensive record of operations while serving in other secret units of the Russian military.[94][95][96]
Russian National Guard special forces
The Russian government established the
National Guard of Russia
The following is a list of National Guard OSNs (отряды специального назначения, otryady spetsial'novo naznacheniya or "special purpose detachments") in 2012:[98]
- Dzerzhinsky Division (O.D.O.N.)
- 7th OSN Rosich (Novocherkassk)
- 12th OSN Ural (Nizhny Tagil)
- 15th OSN Vyatich (Armavir)
- 17th OSN Edelveys (Mineralnye Vody)
- 19th OSN Ermak (Novosibirsk)
- 21st OSN Tayfun (Sosnovka)
- 23rd OSN Mechel (Chelyabinsk)
- 25th OSN Merkuriy (Smolensk)
- 26th OSN Bars (Kazan)
- 27th OSN Kuzbass (Kemerovo)
- 28th OSN Ratnik (Arkhangelsk)
- 29th OSN Bulat (Ufa)
- 30th OSN Svyatogor (Stavropol)
- 33rd OSN Peresvet (Moscow)
- 34th OSN Skif (Grozny)
- 35th OSN Rus (Simferopol)
Furthermore, the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR/Russia also had numerous naval detachments that conducted maritime operations.[99][100][101][102] These include:
- 1st Marine Detachment of the MVD (Khabarovsk);
- 2nd Marine Detachment of the MVD (Murmansk);
- 31st Marine Training Detachment of the MVD (Severobaikalsk);
- 32nd Marine Detachment of the MVD (Ozersk)
These detachments today form the National Guard Naval Service Corps and report to the National Guard HQ.
Police
In addition, the MVD has
From 2003 until 2016 The Federal Drug Control Service of Russia has operated the OSN "Grom", which became part of the Federal Police in April 2016, and now is subordinate to the MVD's Main Directorate for Drugs Control.
Russian Ministry of Justice
The Russian Ministry of Justice maintains several spetsnaz organizations:
The following is a list of Federal Penitentiary Service OSNs:
- OSN "Fakel"[103]
- OSN "Rossy"[104]
- OSN "Akula"[105]
- OSN "Ajsberg"[106]
- OSN "Gyurza"[107]
- OSN "Korsar"[108]
- OSN "Rosomakha"[109]
- OSN "Sokol"[110]
- OSN "Saturn"[111]
- OSN "Tornado"
- OSN "Kondor"
- OSN "Yastreb"[112]
- OSN "Berkut"[113]
- OSN "Grif"[114]
- OSN "Titan"[115]
- OSN "Gepard"[116]
- OSN Saturn.
Ukrainian spetsnaz
Like many other post-Soviet states, Ukraine inherited its spetsnaz units from the remnants of the Soviet armed forces, GRU and KGB units. Ukraine now maintains its own spetsnaz structure under the control of the Ministry of Interior, and under the Ministry of Defence, while the Security Service of Ukraine maintains its own spetsnaz force, the Alpha group. The term "Alpha" is also used by many other post Soviet states such as Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan as these units are based on the Soviet Union's Alpha Group. Ukraine's Berkut special police force gained mainstream attention during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity as it was alleged to have been used by the government to quell the uprising. However, this is disputed as many officers were also wounded and killed in the action.[117] Current Ukrainian spetsnaz units with soviet lineage:
- 3rd Spetsnaz Regiment - formed on the basis of the 10th Spetsnaz Brigade
- 8th Spetsnaz Regiment - formed on the basis of the 8th Spetsnaz Brigade
- 73rd Maritime Special Operations Center - formed on the basis of the 17th Naval Spetsnaz Brigade
- Ukraine's Alpha Group (SBU) - formed on the basis of Kyiv-based 10th Group of the KGBs Alpha Group
In popular culture
The video game, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege features five spetsnaz operators named Glaz, Fuze, Kapkan, Tachanka, and Finka. In another Tom Clancy game, Endwar, Spetsnaz Guard Brigades is the name of the élite branch of the Russian army. The spetsnaz have also been referenced and featured multiple times in the video game series
Two gangsters in the Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla have a 'scar competition' in which they show healed wounds (and describe how they occurred) from injuries they incurred whilst on several spetsnaz operations.
Season 1, Episode 4 of MacGyver (2016 TV series) focuses on stopping spetsnaz agents from activating a Cold War era bomb.
See also
- Special Operations Forces (Russia)
- Guards unit
- List of special forces units
- List of special police units
Notes
- ^ The term is borrowed from Russian: спецназ, IPA: [spʲɪtsˈnas]; abbreviation for Russian: Войска́ специа́льного назначе́ния, tr. Voyská spetsiálnogo naznachéniya, IPA: [vɐjˈska spʲɪt͡sɨˈalʲnəvə nəznɐˈt͡ɕenʲɪjə], lit. 'Special Operations Forces' or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; Ukrainian: сили спеціальних операцій, romanized: syly spetsialnykh operatsii, lit. 'special operations forces' or спецпризначенці, spetspryznachentsi, 'specially designated (plural noun)'
References
- ISBN 0-241-11961-8.
- ^ )
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Sources
- ISBN 0-241-11961-8
- David C. Isby, Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army, Jane's Publishing Company Limited, London, 1988
- Carey Schofield, The Russian Elite: Inside Spetsnaz and the Airborne Forces, Greenhill, London, 1993
External links
- (in Russian) Official website of the Russian Interior Ministry special forces
- (in Russian) Internet portal of Russian special forces Archived 18 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine