Once the world's largest carrier, Aeroflot did not restrict its operations to the transportation of passengers, but monopolised all civil aviation activities within the Soviet Union. Apart from passenger transportation that covered a domestic network of over 3,600 villages, towns and cities, activities undertaken by the airline that were labelled as "non-transport tasks" included agricultural work, ice reconnaissance, anti-forest fire patrol, and aeromedical services, among many others. The former monopolistic "AeroflotSoviet Airlines" entered a new era following the dissolution of the USSR, when it shrank dramatically as it was split into several regional companies throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States in . It was gradually reorganised and renamed "AeroflotRussian International Airlines (ARIA)". In mid-2000, the name of the company was changed to simply .