Spetsnaz

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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

Spetsnaz SSO
snipers

The Russian abbreviations spetsnaz and osnaz are

capitalized
.

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

ODON
) also included osobovo naznacheniya in their full names. Regular forces assigned to special tasks were sometimes also referred to by terms such as Spetsnaz and osnaz.

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-

helped introduce the term to the Western public.

History and known operations

The

Brusilov Offensive of 1916. Such tactics, considered revolutionary at the time, would later inspire people like Prussian Captain Willy Rohr in the development of the Prussian Stormtroopers
(founded in 1915).

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

military branches.[2]

Navy

The Soviet leadership had an urgent need for intelligence on German land forces in

scuba diver, after which he joined 4th Special Volunteer Detachment, where he proved his daring and leadership skills conducting numerous clandestine operations and twice being awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.[3]

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

F-111 escape capsule that was shot down over Vietnam at Museum of Moscow Aviation Institute.
F-111 escape capsule at Museum of Moscow Aviation Institute

Some 3,300 Soviet military experts, among them spetsnaz, were sent to Southeast Asia during the

SVD Dragunov sniper rifles. John Stryker Meyer
was with Studies and Observation Group RT Idaho and had two encounters with what they believed were spetsnaz units operating in Laos in 1968.

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 special forces surround Tajbeg Palace following the operation.

Soviet Spetsnaz forces took part in the

Operation Storm-333, was executed on 27 December 1979 which saw Soviet special forces storming the Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and killing Afghan President Hafizullah Amin, his son and over 300 of his personal guards in 40 minutes.[11] The Soviets then installed Babrak Karmal
as Amin's successor.

The operation involved approximately 660 Soviet operators dressed in Afghan uniforms, including ca. 50

GRU officers from the Alpha Group and Zenith Group. The Soviet forces occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including their primary target – the Tajbeg Palace
.

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]

Mi-8 (16 units), deployment in Ghazni
.

  • 154th Oospn
  • 177th Oospn
  • 334th Oospn
  • 668th Oospn

Lashkar Gah
.

  • 173rd Oospn
  • 186th Oospn
  • 370th Oospn
  • 411th Oospn
A Soviet Spetsnaz group prepare for a mission in Afghanistan.

The Spetsnaz often conducted missions to ambush and destroy enemy supply convoys.

Operation "Curtain" or "Veil", lasted from 1984 to 1988, which aimed to close off the Afghan-Pakistani border and cut off supply routes coming in from Pakistan. The operation caused great distress to the mujahedin war effort, with Spetsnaz units intercepting 990 supply caravans and killing 17,000 insurgents.[14] For their role in Operation Curtain, the Spetsnaz suffered a total of 570 killed with a further 11 missing.[15]
Casualty breakdown by unit was:

  • 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

tit-for-tat response, Alpha group operators first identified the terrorists using local sources, then moved into the Lebanese villages where the terrorists were from and took their relatives as hostages. Some of the hostages were dismembered, and their body parts sent to the hostage takers, with the threat that their relatives were next. The remaining hostages were released immediately.[19]

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

Russian Spetsnaz troops dismount from an APC during the Tajikistani Civil War.
2008 Russo-Georgian War
.

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

Beslan school hostage crisis.[21]

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

Spetsnaz GRU
in attempted rescuing of the hostages.

Second Chechen War

Russian special forces were instrumental in Russia's and the Kremlin backed government's success in the

Muhannad, Ali Taziev, Supyan Abdullayev, Shamil Basayev, Ruslan Gelayev, Salman Raduyev, Sulim Yamadayev, Rappani Khalilov, Yassir al-Sudani. During these missions, many operators received honors for their courage and prowess in combat, including with the title Hero of the Russian Federation. At least 106 FSB and GRU operators died during the conflict.[27]

Moscow theatre hostage crisis

The crisis was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theatre on 23 October 2002 by 40 to 50 armed

Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya.[citation needed] They took 850 hostages and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War. The siege was officially led by Movsar Barayev
.

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

Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) SOBR unit, pumped an undisclosed chemical agent into the building's ventilation system and raided it.[citation needed
]

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

Beslan school victim photos

Also referred to as the Beslan massacre

Kremlin and strengthening of the powers of the President of Russia.[38]

The crisis began when a group of armed radical Islamist combatants, mostly Ingush and Chechen, occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of

Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion, sent by the Chechen terrorist warlord Shamil Basayev, who demanded recognition of the independence of Chechnya at the United Nations
and the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.

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

Russian FSB Spetsnaz are particularly active. Conducting 119 targeted operations in the North Caucasus in 2006 alone, during which they killed more than 100 members of terrorist groups.[47]

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

Carnegie Endowment's Foreign Policy magazine named Russia as "the worst place to be a terrorist", particularly highlighting Russia's willingness to prioritize national security over civil rights.[48] By 2010, Russian special forces, led by the FSB, had managed to eliminate the top leadership of the Chechen insurgency, except for Dokka Umarov.[49]

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.

spies arrested by us since the time when German agents were sent in during the years of World War II." The 2011 figure is similar to what was reported in 1995–1996, when around 400 foreign intelligence agents were uncovered during the two-year period.[citation needed
]

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 "

Volgograd bombings
under the demands of Umarov, and a number of National Olympic Committees had also received threats via e-mail, threatening that terrorists would kidnap or "blow up" athletes during the Games.

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

Russian troops without insignia at the building of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea during its attack.

According to multiple Western sources and Ukraine, Spetsnaz unit of the VDV RF took part in the

45th Detached Guards Spetsnaz Regiment and the 22nd Spetsnaz brigade were sent in, disguised as civilians.[58][59][60][61]

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

On or about 26 February 2022, during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine the Russian Spetsnaz entered Kyiv in a failed attempt to hunt down Ukrainian leaders including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.[62] The spetsnaz including the "Zaslon" unit embedded themselves within the Ukrainian population disguised in civilian clothes and Ukrainian military uniform with the intention to assassinate, eliminate or arrest leading political figures.[63] The Zaslon unit is the assassination arm for covert missions of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the Alpha Group.[63] It is presumed that small fire teams of spetsnaz entered Ukraine before the beginning of the invasion with the mission of obtaining precise intelligence on specific personnel to plan special operations to harm or stop personnel of importance.[63]

On or about 2 March 2022, the

Gostomel heading to the city.[64] It is reported that during the defeat of the unit, General Magomed Tushayev, commander of the 141st Motorized Regiment of the Chechen Rosguard, was killed.[65]

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

GRU spetsnaz soldiers, probably drawn from several units, including naval spetsnaz from the 431st Naval Reconnaissance Point, while SOF operators from the KSSO, reportedly conducted mainly sniper/counter-sniper, sabotage and reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines.[68]

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,

Soviet Partisans
.

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

naval infantrymen
(Naval spetsnaz) by their uniforms and insignia.

Twenty-four years after the birth of spetsnaz, the Chairman of the KGB General

Ministry of Internal Affairs
(MVD) (1946–1954).

KGB

Spetsgruppa 'A' (

counter-terrorist
unit was created in 1974.

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

Special Activities Division
(responsible for clandestine / covert operations involving sabotage and assassination in other countries) and re-designated for counter-terrorist and counter-sabotage operations.

MVD

These were special forces of the

MVD Internal Troops
.

Post-Soviet

During the 1990s special detachments were established within the

Airborne Troops (VDV). Some civil agencies with non-police functions have formed special units also known as spetsnaz, such as the Leader special centre in the Ministry of Emergency Situations
(MChS).

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

National Security Committee (KNB) of Kazakhstan.[75] In 2006, five members of Arystan were arrested and charged with the kidnapping of the opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbayuly, his driver, and his bodyguard; the three victims were then allegedly delivered to the people who murdered them.[76]

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

45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade. In 2009, a Directorate of Special Operations was established that reported directly to the General Staff not the GRU to establish the Special Operations Forces which in 2013 became the Special Operations Forces Command.[72] Most Russian military special forces units are known by their type of formation (company, battalion or brigade) and a number, like other Soviet or Russian military units. Two exceptions were the ethnic Chechen Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad (East and West) that existed during the 2000s. Below is a 2012 list of special purpose units in the Russian Armed Forces:[79][80]

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:

Spetsnaz SSO
operative
Russian SOF during HALO training.

Structure

Ground Forces

Special Operations Forces Command (KSSO)[82][83][84][72]
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)
    • 3rd Special Purpose Brigade – based in Tolyatti
      Russian 3rd Spetsnaz Brigade on parade, 9 May 2011
      • 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
    • 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)
    • 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)
    • 16th Special Purpose Brigade – based in Tambov, with all units deployed in Tambov except for the 664th SPD.[86]
      Russian 370th SPD conducting special reconnaissance training (2017)
      • 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
    • 22nd Special Purpose Brigade – entire unit is based in Stepnoi, Rostov Oblast[87][88]
      Russian 22nd SPB operatives conducting winter Anti-Terrorist training (2017)
      • 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
    • 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
    • 25th Special Purpose Regiment in Stavropol
  • Russian Airborne Troops[citation needed
    ]
    • 45th Special Purpose Airborne Brigade

Navy

Counteraction Underwater Diversionary Forces and Facilities (PDSS)
Combat swimmers of the Russian 313th PDSS conduct land operations.
Kamchatka
(2017)

The

conduct underwater combat, mining and clearance diving. The task is to protect ships and other fleet assets from enemy underwater special forces. The term "combat swimmers" is correct term in relation to the staff of the OSNB PDSS. Every PDSS unit has approximately 50–60 combat swimmers.[90] There are PDSS units in all major Naval Bases.[90]

Russian special forces of the FSB

Then-Russian President Medvedev visiting Dagestan regional FSB special forces base in Makhachkala, 2009

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' (

Operation Storm-333 on a mission to overthrow and kill Afghan president Hafizullah Amin).[citation needed
]

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 [ru] (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

Russian 604th Special Purpose Centre operator
Maroon Beret
.

The Russian government established the

ODON (also known as the Dzerzhinsky Division). OBrON (Independent Special Designation Brigade) VV special groups (spetsgruppa) were deployed to Chechnya.[97]

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]

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

Kadyrovtsy
, including the (Akhmad or Akhmat) Kadyrov Regiment ("Kadyrov's spetsnaz").

Federal Drug Control Service
.

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

Russian FSIN Special Forces during a FAB Defense training exercise

The Russian Ministry of Justice maintains several spetsnaz organizations:

The following is a list of Federal Penitentiary Service OSNs:

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

ARMA 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

Notes

  1. ^ 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, romanizedsyly spetsialnykh operatsii, lit.'special operations forces' or спецпризначенці, spetspryznachentsi, 'specially designated (plural noun)'

References

  1. .
  2. ^
    OCLC 75619581.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  3. ^ a b c d Spetsnaz:Russia's Special Forces by Mark Galeotti
  4. .
  5. ^ Heroes of the Soviet Union 1941–45 by Henry Sakaida
  6. ^ Hardcore Heroes 1 Season 2014
  7. ^ Nick Webster and Claire Donnelly (17 November 2007). "Cold war spy riddle ends". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 18 November 2007. Retrieved 17 November 2007.
  8. ^ "Russian 'killed UK diver' in 1956". BBC.co.uk. 16 November 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  9. ^ Stratton, Allegra (16 November 2007). "Retired Russian frogman confesses to cold war 'killing'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  10. ^ "Russian 'military experts': The Bigfoot sightings of the Vietnam War". 20 January 2017.
  11. .
  12. ^ .
  13. ^ ""Soviet Special Forces (Spetsnaz): Experience in Afghanistan" by Gusinov, Timothy – Military Review, Vol. 82, Issue 2, March/April 2002". Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  14. ^ «Спецназ на тропе войны». Волков Александр Владиленович. Научный сотрудник музея «Шурави» (недоступная ссылка). Дата обращения 20 октября 2015. Архивировано 20 ноября 2015 года.
  15. ^ Алфавитный список погибших военнослужащих частей специального назначения 40-й Армии
  16. ^ Tempest, Rone (24 May 1986). "Afghan Rebels Face Tougher Foe in Elite Soviet Commando Units". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  17. S2CID 144815708. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016 – via Foreign Military Studies Office
    (referenced copy).
  18. ^ "Terrorist Organization Profile: Islamic Liberation Organization". University of Maryland. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  19. ^ a b "Russian Special Forces | What Are Spetsnaz?". 6 May 2021.
  20. ^ "Вячеслав Лашкул. Бейрутская операция советской разведки/Vyacheslav Lashkul" [The Beirut Soviet intelligence operations] (in Russian). Chekist.ru. 31 March 2006. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  21. ^ "18 famous and infamous special forces missions". CNN. 7 May 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  22. ^ a b c (in Russian) Буденновск Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ History of Chechen rebels' hostage taking Archived 11 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine Gazeta.Ru, 24 October 2002
  24. ^ Russia: A Timeline Of Terrorism Since 1995, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 30 August 2006
  25. ^ Adam Dolnik, Understanding Terrorist Innovation: Technology, Tactics and Global Trends, 2007 (p. 105)
  26. ^ "Simmering War". Russian Defense Policy. 15 September 2018.
  27. ^ "The Second Chechen War". The History Guy. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  28. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "The Moscow Theatre Siege Documentary". YouTube. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  29. ^ Moscow theatre siege: Questions remain unanswered Archived 4 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine BBC Retrieved on 16 December 2013
  30. ^ "Gas "killed Moscow hostages", ibid".
  31. ^ "Moscow court begins siege claims" Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 24 December 2002
  32. ^ "Moscow siege gas 'not illegal'". BBC News. 29 October 2002. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  33. ^ MacKenzie, Debora (29 October 2002). "Mystery of Russian gas deepens". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 9 August 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  34. ^ Beslan mothers' futile quest for relief Archived 5 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 4 June 2005
  35. ^ "United States Expresses Sympathy on Anniversary of Beslan Attack". US Department of State. 31 August 2005. Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  36. ^ "Putin's legacy is a massacre, say the mothers of Beslan". The Independent. 26 February 2008. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  37. ^ "Beslan – Two Years On". UNICEF. 31 August 2006. Archived from the original on 4 April 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  38. ^ "Chechnya Vow Cast a Long Shadow". The Moscow Times. 26 February 2008. Archived from the original on 13 August 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  39. ^ "Beslan School Massacre, Dramatic Scenes (2004)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  40. ^ Satter, David (13 November 2006). "The Truth About Beslan. What Putin's government is covering up". The Weekly Standard. Vol. 12, no. 9. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  41. ^ "Woman injured in 2004 Russian siege dies". The Boston Globe. 8 December 2006. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 9 January 2007.
  42. ^ "Putin meets angry Beslan mothers". BBC News. 2 September 2005. Retrieved 28 July 2006.
  43. Baker, Peter; Susan B. Glasser (7 September 2004). "Hostage Takers in Russia Argued Before Explosion". The Washington Post
    . Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  44. ^ "Monument to special forces and rescuers unveiled in Beslan". NEWS.rin.ru. 2 September 2006. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  45. ^ "More and more evidence implicates authorities in Beslan disaster. Beslan's tragic end: Spontaneous or planned?". jamestown.org. 18 October 2004. Archived from the original on 20 October 2004. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  46. ^ "After School Siege, Russia Also Mourns Secret Heroes". The New York Times. 13 September 2004. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  47. ^ a b "Story to the Day of Checkist". grani.ru.
  48. ^ Biberman, Yelena (6 December 2008). "No Place to Be a Terrorist". Russia Profile. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014.
  49. ^ Saradzhyan, Simon (31 March 2010). "Eliminating Terrorists, Not Terror". International Relations and Security Network.
  50. ^ Saradzhyan, Simon (23 December 2010). "Russia's North Caucasus, the Terrorism Revival". International Relations and Security Network.
  51. ^ "Russia Busted 200 Spies Last Year – Medvedev". RIA Novosti. 7 February 2012.
  52. ^ "Caucasus Emirate Leader Calls On Insurgents To Thwart Sochi Winter Olympics". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  53. ^ Novogrod, James; Becky Bratu (14 October 2014). "Inside Russia's pre-Olympics terrorist crackdown". NBC News. Archived from the original on 9 October 2014.
  54. ^ "Russian police kill Islamist militant leader before Olympics". canoe.ca. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  55. ^ Fuller, Liz (23 July 2014). "Insurgency Commanders Divulge Details Of Umarov's Death". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  56. ^ "МВД России ликвидировало за 4 месяца более 350 боевиков". Новости Mail.Ru. Archived from the original on 4 January 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  57. ^ "ОГВ на Кавказе за 15 лет уничтожила более 10 тысяч боевиков". РИА Новости. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  58. ^ "Ukraine crisis: Pretext and plotting behind Crimea's occupation". Financial Times. 7 March 2014. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
  59. ^ Willis Raburu (17 April 2014). "Putin admits unmarked soldiers in Ukraine were Russian; optimistic about Geneva talks". Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  60. ^ "Photos and roses for GRU's 'spetsnaz' casualties". Financial Times. 8 August 2014. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
  61. ^ Woloshyn, George (26 December 2014). "George Woloshyn: Take the fight to the enemy". Kyiv Post. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
  62. ^ iNews: Russian special forces have entered Kyiv to hunt down Ukraine's leaders, says Volodymyr Zelensky
  63. ^ a b c "Putin's elite unit's goal: Spetsnaz seeks to eliminate Ukraine's leaders". The Jerusalem Post | Jpost.com.
  64. ^ "The subdivision of the National Guard Forces Command of the Chechen Republic is destroyed near Kiev, commander of the regiment Tushaev is killed - Ministry of Defense of Ukraine". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  65. ^ Interfax: A unit of the Rosguard of Chechnya was defeated near Kyiv, the regiment commander Tushayev was killed - the Ministry of Defense
  66. ^ "Russian casualties in Ukraine. Mediazona count, updated".
  67. ^ Galeotti, Mark (21 March 2016). "The Three Faces of Russian Spetsnaz in Syria". Warontherocks.com. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  68. ^ a b "Information archivée dans le Web" (PDF).
  69. ^ Дед советского спецназа
  70. ^ Pringle, Robert W. (2015). "Starinov, Ilya Grigorevich (1900–2001)". Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence. Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (2 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 295. . Retrieved 30 May 2019. After fighting in the civil war, Starinov joined the GRU. In the 1930s, he became one of the founders of GRU Spetsnaz forces, preparing Soviet soldiers and foreign communists to conduct operations behind invaders' lines.
  71. ^ Carey Schofield, The Russian Elite: Inside Spetsnaz and the Airborne Forces, Greenhill, London, 1993, p.34-37
  72. ^ a b c d "Shoigu sozdaet otvergnutye Serdyukovym sily spetsoperatsii, otstav of SShA na 26 let". Newsru.com (in Russian). 6 March 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  73. ^ "5th independent Special Forces Brigade". Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  74. ^ "The State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus". Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  75. ^ Mariya Y. Omelicheva, Counterterrorism Policies in Central Asia, page 119.
  76. ^ Kazakh security officers suspected of kidnapping, not murdering oppositionist. Archived 27 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, BBC Monitoring International Reports, 22 February 2006.
  77. ^ "SPECIAL FORCES OF KAZAKHSTAN (2007)". Kazakh military site.
  78. ^ Roger McDermott, Bat or Mouse? The Strange Case of Reforming Spetsnaz Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 198, 2 November 2010.
  79. ^ "Warfare.be" ГРУ (Главное Разведывательное Управление) ГШ ВС РФ. Russian Military Analysis (in Russian). Retrieved 30 December 2012.
  80. ^ "Warfare.be" Военно-Морской Флот. Russian Military Analysis (in Russian). Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  81. ^ Bellingcat Investigation Team (17 February 2020). ""V" For "Vympel": FSB's Secretive Department "V" Behind Assassination of Georgian Asylum Seeker in Germany". bellingcat.
  82. ^ . Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  83. ^ .
  84. ^ a b c d Mikhailov, Aleksey (18 April 2016). "Boitsy Chetvertovo Izmereniya". Voyenno Promyshlennyy Kuryer (in Russian). Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  85. ^ "1 Декабря День Рождения 2 ОБр.СпецНаз ГРУ. – 30 Ноября 2012 – "Союз десантников" г.Локня". vdvloknya.ucoz.ru.
  86. ^ Сергей Козлов. Спецназ ГРУ: Очерки истории. // Том 5. Новейшая история. 1999–2010 гг.. — Москва: Русская панорама, 2010. — P. 40-41, 44–50, 65, 335–336, 492–493. — 400 p. — 3 000 экз.
  87. ^ "22 гв ОБрСпН – первая в Российской Гвардии". voenpro.ru.
  88. ^ 22 гвардейская отдельная бригада специального назначения (22 огбрСпН ГРУ)
  89. ^ Сергей Козлов. Спецназ ГРУ: Очерки истории. // Том 5. Новейшая история. 1999–2010 гг.. — Москва: Русская панорама, 2010. — P. 40-41, 44–50, 65, 336–337, 492–493. — 400 p. — 3 000 экз.
  90. ^ a b staff (29 January 2009). "Delfin". ShadowSpear: Russian Special Operations. www.shadowspear.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  91. ^ Sakwa, Richard. Russian Politics and Society (4th ed.). p. 98.
  92. ^ Kozlov, Sergei (8 September 2010). "FSB Special forces: 1998–2010". Agentura.ru. Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  93. ^ León-Borja, Lajos Szászdi. "Russian Military Forces of the MVD, the Border Troops, and the Special Forces". Academia.
  94. ^ "Vietnamdefence.com – Tin Quân sự 24h". Archived from the original on 18 February 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  95. ^ "Special force deployment to Syria may signal Moscow's doubts". BLOUIN BEAT: Politics. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  96. ^ "Russian Zaslon Special Operations – Business Insider". Business Insider. 19 May 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  97. ^ Patrick E. Tyler (25 January 2002). "Police in Chechnya Accuse Russia's Troops of Murder". The New York Times. Russia; Chechnya (Russia). Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  98. ^ "Warfare.be" Министерство Внутренних Дел (МВД). Russian Military Analysis (in Russian). Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  99. ^ Военно-морской флот на озере в Челябинской области / Статья от 27.06.2010 г. на сайте «ОТВ». Н. Сучков.
  100. ^ Силовики защитили ядерные объекты Озерска от террористов-водолазов / Статья от 26.06.2014 г. на сайте ГТРК «Южный Урал». Е. Рогозина, В. Черепанов.
  101. ^ Атомный водолаз из Челябинской области стал раллийным пилотом / Статья от 10.11.2017 г. в сетевом издании «74.ру». А. Скрипова.
  102. ^ День ВМФ в Озёрске. Водолазы группы захвата / Видео от 31.07.2011 г. на «YouTube».
  103. ^ "ОСН "Факел" УФСИН России по Московской области принял участие в Международной выставке "Интерполитех-2013"". Federal Penal Service. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  104. ^ "Отдел специального назначения "Россы" ГУФСИН России по Свердловской области отпраздновал 21-ю годовщину со дня создания". The Federal Penal Service. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  105. ^ "В ОСН(б) "Акула" УФСИН России по Краснодарскому краю прошли испытания на право ношения крапового берета". FPS of Russia, Krasnodar Territory. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  106. ^ "Офицеры ОСН АЙСБЕРГ – Официальный сайт Филиала "Красная Поляна" Южного межрегионального учебного центра ФСИН России". Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  107. ^ "Отдел специального назначения "Гюрза" УФСИН России по Республике Калмыкия отметил 20-ти летие". FPS of Russia, Republic of Kalmykia. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  108. ^ "ОСН ГУФСИН России по Новосибирской области "Корсар" исполнилось 20 лет". Federal Penal Service. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  109. ^ "Сотрудники ОСН "Росомаха" УФСИН Росси по Ямало-Ненецкому автономному округу признаны победителями регионального чемпионата по рукопашному бою". Federal Penal Service. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  110. ^ "В ОСН "Сокол" УФСИН России по Белгородской области прошёл День открытых дверей". FPS of Russia, Belgorod region. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  111. ^ "ОСН "Сатурн" Официальный сайт". OSN "Saturn", Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Moscow. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  112. ^ ru:Ястреб (спецподразделение)
  113. ^ "Бойцы отряда "Беркут" на Камчатке учатся подавлять массовые беспорядки зэков. КАМЧАТКА-ИНФОРМ". 24 March 2016. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016.
  114. ^ "Страница памяти. Отдел специального назначения "ГРИФ"". OSN "Grif" memorial page. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  115. ^ "Из Чечни вернулся липецкий отряд спецназа "Титан"". Gorod48.ru. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  116. ^ "Вестник Мордовии: Бойцы спецназа "Гепард" сразились за краповый берет (фоторепортаж)". The Mordovian Bulletin. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  117. ^ "Special Report: Flaws found in Ukraine's probe of Maidan massacre". Reuters. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2015.

Sources

External links