Russian Ground Forces The Russian Ground Forces are the land forces of the Russian Federation . It was formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992 . This in turn , posed many economic challenges coupled with reforms to professionalize the force during the transitional phase that Russia had to endure due to the collapse of the Soviet Union . While the Russian Ground Forces in their present form are only 15 years old , Russian officials trace their antecedents ' history through the Imperial Russian era back to the time of Kievan Rus . Since 1992 the Ground Forces have had to withdraw many thousands of troops from former Soviet garrisons abroad , while being extensively committed to the Chechen wars , and peacekeeping and other operations in the Soviet successor states ( what is known in Russia as the " near abroad " ) . Most recently they clashed with Georgian forces in August 2008 . Structure . The ground forces organizationally consist of the military districts ( Moscow Military District , Leningrad , North Caucasus , Volga - Ural , Siberian and Far Eastern ) , eight army headquarters , one army corps headquarters ( the 68th in the Far East ) , tank divisions , motorized rifle divisions , artillery divisions , fortified districts , individual military units , military establishments , enterprises and organizations . The current Siberian Military District was formed by the amalgamation of the Siberian and Transbaikal Military Districts in 1998 , and the Volga and Urals Military Districts were amalgamated in 2001 . Ranks and Insignia . The newly reemergent Russia retained most of the ranks of the Soviet Army with some minor changes . The principal difference from the usual Western style is some variation in generals ' rank titles , in one case at least , Colonel General , derived from German usage . Most of the rank names were borrowed from existing German / Prussian , French , English , Dutch and Polish ranks upon the formation of Russian regular army in the late 1600s , and have lasted with few changes of title through the Soviet period . Equipment . The Russian Ground Forces is one of the most well equipped armies in the world . However most of it is old Soviet equipment . The main service rifle is the AK - 74M that was nearly replaced by the AN - 94 Abakan , but eventually fell out of favor . The Kalashnikov AK - 12 will be a new assault rifle of Russian Ground Forces in 2014 . Russian main service sniper rifles are the legendary Dragunov and SV - 98 . The main service LMGs are RPK - 74M , PKM , PKP Pecheneg . The legendary RPG - 7 , RPG - 16 , RPG - 29 , RPG - 32 , RPO Schmel are main service rocket launchers . It is the only army in the world that uses two types of main battle tanks , the gas turbine T - 80 , and the diesel powered T - 90 . Other types in service include the T - 62 , T - 64 , T - 72 and their versions , and even the T - 55 . There are 500 T - 90A , 4000 T - 80U , 500 - T - 80 , 9000 T - 72B , 2000 T - 72 in regular service . All T - 64 , T - 62 , T - 55 MBT are in storage . In 2013 start of complete utilization program . A future main battle tank the T - 99 is still under going development in Russia . First prototype will be test in 2013 . Russia has over 22 , 000 tanks . It is the largest tank forces in the world . Russian artillery is the strongest in the world . There are more than 3000 howitzers in service , most of them are from Soviet Union . About 5000 self - propelled artillery are in service in Russian Ground Forces . Main service Russian multiple rocket launchers are BM - 21 Grad ( 3182 ) , BM - 27 Uragan ( 900 ) , BM - 30 Smerch ( 106 ) , TOS - Buratino ( 15 ) and 9A52 - 4 Tornado ( 24 ) . Russian Air Defense Force , can be the strongest one in the world . It has a very large number of air defense vehicles . There are more than 2100 Air Defense vehicle in Russian Ground Forces . There are two main types of SAM in Russia Ground Forces : S - 400 Triumph ( 106 ) , S - 300 ( 921 ) . Other types in service include 9K331M Tor ( 148 ) , 9K35M Strela ( 358 ) , 9K33 Osa ( 294 ) and many others .