Armed Forces of the Russian Federation: Encyclopedia II - Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - Organization

Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - Organization

The Russian military is divided into the following branches: Ground Forces, Navy, and Air Force. There are also three independent troops (actually Corps): Strategic Missile Troops, Military Space Troops, Airborne Troops. The Anti-air Defense Troops are subordinated to the Air Force.

The Ground Forces are divided into six military districts: Moscow, Leningrad, North Caucasian, Privolzhsk-Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern.

The Navy consists of four fleets:

• Baltic Fleet (HQ at Baltiysk in the enclave of Kaliningrad Oblast).
• Pacific Fleet (HQ at Vladivostok).
• Northern Fleet (HQ at Murmansk).
• Black Sea Fleet (HQ at Sevastopol, Ukraine. In 2005, the Ukrainian government confirmed that Russia's lease on the Sevastopol base will be honored at least until 2017.)

Since the Soviet time, the General Staff was acting as the main commanding and supervising body of the military forces, but currently its role is being reduced to a Ministry's department of strategic planning and the Minister is gaining executive authority over the troops. The other departments include Main personnel directorate and Auxiliary troops, Railroad troops and Construction troops.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Organization", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki