[oxinsnepe]

June 6, 2012 Ria Novosti

Russia is trying to rebuild its special operations forces after disbanding three of twelve Spetsnaz brigades
(the 67th in Berdsk, 12th in Asbest, and 3rd in Samara) three years ago. The cuts three years ago were
part of an army wide reorganization and reduction of personnel strength.

But now one of the disbanded brigades (the 67th) is being rebuilt in Siberia. The government is concerned
about growing Islamic radicalism in central Russia and the five Central Asian nations that used to be part
of the Soviet Union but became independent in 1991. Russia has military and security agreements with
these five Moslem nations and wants another Sptsnaz brigade available in case there is a spike in Islamic
terrorism. The Russian generals have come to learn that when you need something done, nothing works
better than a brigade of special operations commandos.



Despite the 2009, cutbacks, Russia's ground forces, especially the country's numerous special operations
units, have apparently benefited greatly from the major reforms being instituted in the armed forces in the
last eight years. Airborne Forces (paratroopers) and special operations forces (Spetsnaz) have historically
been a major source of pride to Russians, going back to the '70s and '80s, when 30,000 Spetsnaz and
airborne troops constituted the most effective troops available during the Afghan War (1979-1989).



For the foreseeable future the Russians know that their elites are the most effective, reliable troops they
have and can't afford to have them spread thinly across the military in different formations. Instead, the
Russians appear to be concentrating their most effective forces into specific units in order to have a lot of
them ready to go and already integrated when they go into action. The same goes for the regular army, as
it slowly but surely improves in quality.

The Spetsnaz brigades contain about 1,600 troops, at full strength, and the 67th brigade only had about a
thousand troops when it was disbanded in 2009. Now it is being revived with 400 troops transferred from
another Spetsnaz brigade. It will take several years, perhaps as many as five, to get the revived 67th
brigade up to full strength.