Russian Special Operations Forces: Image Versus Substance
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By Sergey Sukhankin
March 28, 2019
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated members of the country’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) on their professional day, February 27 (inaugurated in 2015), underscoring this service’s instrumentality in the “eradication of terrorists in Syria and securing peace in Crimea and Sevastopol during the historical referendum [sic]†(TASS, February 27). Russia took its first concrete steps toward creating a stand-alone SOF in 2009 (on the basis of the Special Purpose Center “Senezhâ€); but as a coherent structure, this entity only appeared in March 2013, while the first tactical exercises involving the SOF were conducted in the Elbrus mountains in April 2013 (Mil.ru, April 29, 2013). The Russian SOF does not fall under any of the pre-existing branches/ arms of Russian armed forces or the non-military special services. And unlike other types of Russian special forces, or Spetsnaz (such as Alpha Group or Vympel), the Special Operations Forces are “not small special groups of highly qualified professionals, but large army-type structures comprised of professionals of the highest quality.†As a separate force (directly subordinated to the General Stuff), the SOF requires no “nod of approval from other armed forces branches†(RIA Novosti, February 27, 2018)—a perpetual problem various Spetsnaz units have had to deal with in Soviet/Russian regional conflicts.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2019/03/28/russian_special_operations_forces_image_versus_substance_114293.html
