I wonder where you people found out the information about Russian Marines. You know something but not much though. Listen to what I say. Russian Marines has old history if you compare to US Marines. They were created for different reason than US Marines. In Russia the elite forces are (VDV- Vozdushno Desantnye Voiska) Troops Landed Forces. They must have been with skills to do everything, shot from everything and so on. They have elite elite parts for not only military purposes like saboteur in enemy's rear or gain the rear of the enemy. They are supposed to be intellegent forces or like that. But Russian Marine or you say Naval Infantry (which is literally right) has different tasks. They are extremely strong , quick and poweful forces. They do not do what US Marines do. They are "sweep off" forces. They are more physically trained forces. In Russian Military Statute of Russian Marines (Physical training part) is spoken that they must do everything what VDV do plus blah, blah, blah. And they run, run, run and shot, shot, shot. That is all. They gain a victory.

They also have special division where are only officers with brains and they do most critical work. Got questions? Reply 

Yeah I have a question.... do they get paid in potatos or vodka?  :)

 

Desant are the paratroopers.

Paratrooper day is a very dangerous day to visit the manezh in moscow due to the number of dead drunk ex-paratroopers congregating there to pick fights.

 

The Russian Naval Infantry used to have a couple of nice toys. They were the first to use hovercraft in a big way, big nasty armoured and armed ones (if you go to Peitr (sankt petersburg) and take the hydrofoil to peterhof, you go past the slips where they still (?) build them. They also had the ekranoplane monster (6 of them, but they've all been laid up last I heard).