page_title: Military beret
section_title: Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Military beret / By country / Russia
caption_attribution_description: English: Russian paratroopers stand at attention during an exercise in Kazakhstan. Русский: Десантники 106-ой дивизии во время учений в Казахстане.
context_page_description: Berets have been a component of the uniforms of many armed forces throughout the world since the mid-20th century. Military berets are usually pushed to the right to free the shoulder that bears the rifle on most soldiers, but the armies of some countries, mostly within Europe, South America and Asia have influenced the push to the left.
  In some countries, berets are associated with elite units, who often wear berets in more unusual colours. For instance, the maroon beret is mostly traditional headgear for elite airborne forces around the world, with a few exceptions like the Russian Airborne Troops, who instead wear a sky blue beret or the Portuguese Paratroopers that wear a green beret.
context_section_description: In the Soviet Union berets were sewn together from three pieces of material with four air holes, two at each side, worn with the service badge centered between the eyes and draped to the right in most circumstances. When appearing in public on parade, the berets were draped to the left side so that the insignia shows to observing dignitaries and the public. Berets were worn only by:
  
  During this period berets were also worn by female personnel of the Armed Forces for everyday and parade uniform. The colour of the beret corresponded with that of the main uniform (e.g. Army and Air Force everyday uniform - olive, Navy uniform - navy blue or white, Army parade uniform - sea green, Air Force parade uniform - dark blue).
  The Soviet-era beret color scheme detailed above (e.g. for airborne troops and naval infantry) remained in effect in post-1991 Russia. In the late 1990s the Russian Ministry of Extreme Situations introduced orange berets for its own troops.
  In 2011 the Russian defence ministry authorised the wearing of berets by all non-naval military personnel as part of their field uniforms.
  The current beret colour scheme is:
caption: Russian Paratroopers 106th VDD
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:17 23:35:43", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7229", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "682"}