Russia

Russia, or what is today known as the Russian Federation (Российская Федерация), is a large, independent Eurasian state incoporating forty percent of the land in Europe and most of northern Asia. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia elected its first president and embarked on a vast number of reforms aimed to bring the former Soviet state into the present era.

Unlike many of the former Soviet states, the Russian Armed Forces (Вооружённые Силы Россий or VSR in romanized letters) retained much of the symbology of the Soviet Army and continued wearing Soviet uniforms for a number of years. Yet in the field of camouflage, significant changes were instituted rather quickly, in part due to the fact that new developments had already been in place when the Soviet Union dissolved. The first new camouflage pattern to enter service with the Russian Armed Forces (1990 3-TsV) was definitely a Soviet design, although it did not enter widespread service until 1994 and was in fact adopted for brief periods as the standard combat uniform pattern of a number of ex-Soviet republics. Likewise, the later flora pattern, which was introduced in 1998, was also adopted by a number of the former republics.

Russia has certainly been one of the most innovative and permissive nations in terms of camouflage design, producing a wide variety of unique patterns, many of which are associated with special units of the VSR or the Ministry of the Interior (MVD). Yet she has also copied or reproduced the camouflage designs of other nations, including those of the USA, Britain, Germany, and Finland.