[26] Russia's SOF are manned exclusively by professional personnel hired on contract, of which all are full-time servicemen consisting of commissioned officers and regular soldiers.

Designed for performing specific tasks, the SOF have the ability to function both within the country and abroad, in peacetime and in wartime (with application of military force, by necessity).

The Russian Ministry of Defense defines the term "special operation" as "methods and ways of fighting not characteristic of conventional forces: reconnaissance and sabotage, subversion and sedition, counter-terrorism, counter-sabotage, counterintelligence, guerrilla, counter-guerrilla and other activities".

[29][30] The SOF have been primarily involved in Syria, conducting target acquisition for Russian Air Force combat planes conducting airstrikes and Russian Navy sea-launched cruise missile strikes, serving as military advisors training Syrian government troops, seek and destroying critical enemy objects, disruption behind enemy lines through ambushes, high value targeted assassinations and retaliation strikes against select groups of fighters.

[31] In 2009, as a part of the comprehensive reform of the Russian Federation's Armed Forces, Special Operations Directorate, subordinate directly to the Chief of the General Staff, was created on the basis of the GRU's 322nd Specialist Training Center in the Moscow region (Military Unit 92154).

[22][33] On 15 March 2013, according to Russian media reports, the creation of the Special Operations Center of the Ministry of Defense for around 500 professional soldiers began in the suburban village of Kubinka-2.

In May 2013, the General Staff said that the unit would be tasked with security of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and that the SOF now comprised air and naval components.

Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu later personally thanked all the military personnel involved for their exemplary performance of the task.

[20] There is a cold weather/mountaineering training centre at Mount Elbrus codenamed "Terskol", in Kabardino-Balkaria and the 54th Special Reconnaissance Center in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia–Alania.

[20] The Special Operations Forces warfare training centers and facilities: According to the Russian Defence Ministry as of February 2019, there are ten cases among SOF personnel in Syria that have been confirmed to be killed in action.