Spetsnaz - World's Most Elite Special Forces Unit? (Marine Reacts) 

This is NOT Spetsnaz training, but a selection process that you have to pass in order join special forces. The real training begins after.

Those striped shirts have a tradition in the russian military.The first to get them were sailors,which now use a dark blue variant.The Marines use black,green is for border troops (I think),light blue is for the VDV-paratroopers and the red seen in the video is used by the special forces.

Hello comrades! This is a selection process for crimson beret, Russian national guard special forces. Helmets, older helmet from the 90, they dont use them a lot anymore. Striped shirt traditional "telnyashka" different branches have different colors, lile VDV paratroopers white/blue. Different uniforms because they are from different branches. They receive some riot police training because they are internal forces mainly... Training is crazy and extreme I wouldn't underestimate, safety is not the most important thing:). Different approach to the physical training brings up hand to hand combat and some acrobatic exercises. The best special force is the one who is willing to sacrifice more and push all the way..

In case it wasn't in the comments enough, I just wanted people to know that this is not Spetsnaz training, but a selection process.

Okay, here is the deal. I was in russian military and I actually know few people who owns maroon beret. SO! -Maroon beret is for special forces of the national guard of Russian federation. They train with shield and batons because riots are part of their competence. The same explanation is for meaning of martial arts. These guys can be used as police SF (swat). -White and red stripes shirts are traditional in Russian military. There are different color options in different branches. I served in VDV (Airborne) and we have blue and white stripes. -These are heavy helmets for police units, for the assault actions. Usually they also have a bulletproof visor on it. -There are no live rounds, these are blank cartridges. -Rolling down the hill is not a training, it's just a way to piss you off a bit. -March is not just a march, it's, as you said, a combination. And every year, as I know, they change the terrain. -Have no idea about lemons lol. -The whole idea of "beating ass" at the end is not practical. It is a way for a candidate to show their willpower. And that RT clip is not informative. THere are a lot of steps even to get to the point when you start running. You need to pass theory exam, laws, and some other things. Also they did show the "tactical" part badly. There are some shooting, assault and other tests candidate need to pass. And candidates are not some first day soldiers, some of them are already combat veterans. Maroon beret is some sort of reward. Hellow from Russia

Take a shot everytime he wants you to put something in the comments.

The “parkour” is very important. SN are meant to hunt down their target and not just if they are within firing range. They need to be agile, climb into buildings, jump roofs... to be comfortable getting around any and all obstacles. Parkour is one of the best ways to do that. And this isn’t training, this is a selection for training and it’s super hard to get into.

Spetsnaz is not an unit. Its a general term "special purpose". there are shitton of special purpose units with different names and roles in russia. Each with separate training and selection methods.

"why do they where motorcycle helmets" that is a breaching helmet it can mount a pistol rated face shield and the actual helmet is rated somewhere between NIJ 3a and 3

Girl: you wanna be on top or bottom? Me: idk “put that on the comments”

“The crimson beret rocks” wasn’t a literal translation, of course

I’d say the flips and “parkour “ stuff is a way to test their agility. I’ve seen a lot of western special forces guys and other than run and do pull ups, they are not necessarily agile. Mostly muscle bound and rather clumsy. The ability to do gymnastic moves speaks volumes for a persons fitness.

spetnaz is a term for every elite unit in the russian armed forces.

Just saying, this is selection process, not training

1:52 he didnt say that "it rocks" he was saying that you need courage and will to get through the trainging. the translating is not accurate and i speak russian

The problem is a lot of what the soldier is saying is not a literal translation. It can be interpreted much more seriously and better in russian than it can in english. And this can lead to misunderstanding of what Spetsnaz soldiers are like, how they are trained, and the sort of things they do.

About the lemon thing. There was a story that a general and his soldiers after march for hundreds of miles were tired and thirsty, but they were out at nowhere so there wouldn't be any water source near by so the general told that at where they come there are lots of lemon (other variant is apricots) tree so they can eat all they want, because of that everyone thinking about those sour fruit their saliva came out relief their thirsty.

@Jamesons Travels So... This is going to be a bit of a long one. So if I bore you with it - I do apologise :) First of all. Specnaz stands for - Special'noe Naznachenie - Special Task. Every force has it's special task units and all called specnaz. Army haz specnaz, Navy has specnaz, Police has specnaz, Fire and rescue has Specnaz etc. Obviously there is a massive difference in training and skill sets between all of them, due to the various nature of the work they are supposed to do. Those particular guys in the vid are not military. They are VV - Vnutrnennie Voyska - Internal Forces. Basically criss-cross between riot police and SWAT. That is why they do all the weird stuff like acrobatics and shield wall. Because their primary function is to supress riots and deal with all sort of criminal element. That's also why their tactical skills and weapon drills are not too good compared to their military counterparts. The helmets they wear are not bike helmets. They are, once again - police and other CQB units standard issue. I believe you can attach face shields to them if need arises. What you see in this vid is not a long selection course - it's a test day. That's just it - one day. They don't teach anything over there. They test basic skill sets, PT, aggression and willpower. That's why they roll down the hill, goose walk, crawl through mud, sand and water and do other stuff like that. it's not to teach them anything - it's to make it as physically difficult for them to complete the march as feasibly possible. Although there is no other hardship that most military special task guys would have to endure - there is no sleep deprivation, they don't have to be tired, cold, wet and hungry for many days, there is no SERE or anything like that. Those lads are police - they are not about all that. Those who pass become something close to US SWAT teams. Yes - they do kick you out if you fail hand to hand bit. If a candidate can't get himself through one day (even if that's one hell of a long and hard day) - they don't need him. I don't believe there is any set limit on re-tries to pass the test day. From what I heard - that's up to assessment/instructor teams. And last but not least - the striped shirts they wear are tel'nyashka. Originally - sailor's bottom layer warm, woolen shirt. Later on it got adapted by a number of forces. Navy wears dark blue stripe, Marines wear black stripe, Paratroops - light blue stripe, VV - maroon stripe... I also believe fire and rescue does orange stripe. Bit weird but it's Russian thing :) Thanks for your videos and all the work you do. Keep it up :)

Spetnaz actual training is harsh. I've seen a few videos where they run scenarios with live rounds and body armor, take it to the chest return fire, one guy actually took a live round through the leg and they crowd targets to teach angles, if you die you die.... They're pretty damn scary.

When you paused on dude with the helmet strap in his mouth I died when you paused cause I knew you weren’t gonna let that dummy slide lmao he was eating that helmet strap 😂

Hello. I'm native Russian, served Soviet Union Army. The maroon color of the Telnyashka - striped shirt is matching color of the beret, this is all modern uniform from the 2005, original Telnyashka using in navy, then VDV adopted it with significantly changing color to light blue. This is basic training of the Spetznaz of VV - Vnytrennie Vojska in my opinion equivalent to SWAT of the US police.

I think others have said it, but to reiterate, Spetsnaz has become sort of a catch-all term for Russian Special Operations forces. This includes not just the military branches, but also civilian police as well as Russia's version of the national guard, who often perform more of a policing function. The original Spetsnaz were formed as the long range surveillance and commando units attached to GRU, which was the USSR's Military Intelligence. Modern Spetsnaz forces can be identified in part by the berets that they wear. I believe that blue berets are for the Army, black for the navy and national guard/paramilitary police use a red or maroon beret. There are also 'spetsnaz' forces that work for both FSB and FSO. These appear to answer directly to some sort of command structure within FSO or FSB. I also believe that there are different units for FSB (sort of like our FBI) and FSO (which protects high ranking politicians). Not a lot is really known about them, they tend to blend in with the rest of Spetsnaz, but from my time in Russia and working with Russians, they seem to be definitively separate entities, although I think that they draw a lot of their recruits from within Spetsnaz forces in the military. I'm not sure if they are ultra-secretive, or if they benefit from the fact that most westerners don't understand Russian and lump all Spetsnaz into one catch-all force. I was in sort of a delicate position when I was working in Russia and I really minimized my questions regarding military formations/government functions/etc.

I loved land nav. It found it very intriguing, to be to find yourself on a map or move across a map to all end up in the same spot. I really enjoyed it

Rolling down hill looks like a test to keep from dropping, accidentally firing and keeping the rifle free of dirt so it will fire when needed, plus the ability to stand-up in complete control and keep moving after the roll.

Norwegian retired military here. Was on the Russian border. The Spetsnaz are a very impressive unit and I personally think they are among top of all special forces.

These men are not the Spetsnaz or the Soviet Army Special Forces that the West would know from the Cold War or its modern equivalents from the ex-Soviet states. This is the "State Guard" Special Forces. These are special response units that are generally equivalent to the SWAT in the West. The "State Guard" Special Forces are more militarized than the SWAT though. They would have more heavily armored and armed APC's, artillery support, combat helicopter fleet etc. These units focus on operations exclusively within Russia's boundaries. They are used as either "elite" riot police, SWAT or in counter-insurgent or counter-terrorist actions in hot spots like the North Caucasus.

man, I love watching his videos. I like the way he engages me into the conversation by asking me a lot of questions. He does a better job than most of my teachers in school!

I remember going through land nav in basic training and at first it seemed complicated but once you get the basics down it becomes rather fun. On the land navigation test day we all were split into teams of 4 and it just so happened that with a combined effort my team was able to find all the points and make it back to the gather point in first place. Great experience.

I don't see much difference between Special Forces around the world. They are all humanly equal as each other. I think the only difference is down to the funding, recruitment, and personnel size....rather than which country they are from.

I suspect there is no 'best' special forces unit, for the simple reason most of them cross-train and learn from each other. Also special forces are only as good as the intelligence provided to them, if the intelligence is bad, then it really doesn't matter what kind of unit you belong to, you're about as good as dead.

The Alpha Group of the Spetsnaz is probably one of the most elite special forces in the world. I would compare them to units like the SAS and Seal Team 6 and Delta Force.

Just like we have several SEAL teams that are trained in specialties for different areas of operations and scenarios, I think this is ideal for keeping the team in its comfort zone of its intended task. Basically too much multitasking of too many qualifications might not be as good as less is more.

Spetsnaz is not even a special forces unit Its a broad term to all special forces in russia. This includes actual elite units like alfa and then some basic paratrooper units like ones shown in the video.

The sas used batons once. A high security jail in Scotland had a riot and a group of inmates took a gaurd hostage and barricaded themselves in the attic. The gaurd needed his insulin. Thatcher asked the Sas to resolve the situation, the troopers decided that as the prisoners had no guns it would be unfair to take their own so used wooden staves and flash bangs. Went in through the roof in the early hours, the four man team had it done in minutes and successfully rescued the gaurd and secured the prison.

I was a public order instructor in the British Army. If a unit is deploying to a Country that has Civil Unrest then they are trained with the Shield and batton. Great training very hard. I got one leg burnt by a petrol bomb and that was on my course.

In 73 I was stationed in Germany on a base that had intercontinental middles we did riot training every Friday so in case some people tried to come to base and riot we had batons and shields learning to push people back

Best SF group is the one that doesn’t technically exist

Somewhen smth went wrong and lots of people knows only about “spetsnaz” while in Russia we have lots of SF groups , for example police SF groups : “SOBR”; “OMON” , some FSB SF groups like “ALPHA, etc.” , there are lots of SF groups in different types of regular army and every group can be called “spetsnaz” , we call “spetsnaz” any SF group , it doesn’t matter what kind of military/police formation does it belongs to , this is colloquial name of any SF group in Russia. P.S. I’m not really sure that my english is good enough, sry if there is any mistakes ....

Lol. When you said Popeye (the sailor man!) 😂

It's SF of the Russian National Guard. NG is somewhere in the middle of army and police functions. Hence, the specific traning at 2:00 and 'strange' helmets.

My uncle has his t shirt light blue and white.. ( he wears it during a summer bbq with his big belly fat😂) he was a paratrooper who fought during afghan-soviet war...

Friend: why do you watch this channel Me: "put that in the comments"

Love this channel, glad I found it!

The two surprising things about basic training in Russia is that they periodically tear gas you... Also one of the exercises is to bayonet charge off the third floor of a building and just hit the ground.

2:23 you gotta understand, these guys are not spetsnaz yet, this is the entrance exam to get into the unit. Actual training starts after. 14:20 this is just to break their breathing pace, make it more difficult

Me: "do the thing! do the thing!" Jameson's Travels: "let's go" Me: :)

17:37 "He look's like he's DONE" HAHAHAHAHA Tellement !!

3:52 those arent bicycle or motorcycle helmets, they are most probably the Russian Vityaz S helmets or other bulletproof Titanium helmets produced for the Russian military. They also use them in real combat because they offer ballistic protection against mostly everything weaker than assault rifles.

Telnyashkas with stripes of certain colors traditionally designate particular troops, for example: Black - Naval Infantry Dark blue - Navy Light blue - VDV paratroopers, GRU Spetsnaz (posing as VDV) Light green - Border Troops Maroon - OMON Red - National Guard Forces Command, National Guard of Russia (formerly Internal Troops of the MVD) Orange - EMERCOM

Spetsnaz is also used as swat at times thats why they did that shield wall.

I appreciate all the videos you provide

Just wanted to touch on the rolling down the hill, I was taught this as an army cadet. I was told it is more efficient to roll down hills as you are staying low to the ground and it is faster than running down.

Spetsnaz learn everything. They get used a lot in Riots and Catching criminals on the streets etc...Thats why they learn to use batons, shields, and hand to hand combat. They are like an Army and Police combined.

They don't show the true training of their special teams in Russia. This is nothing here, just a lot of thrown together things. Not real training of special teams.

The striped undershirt is just another way of identifying the division.

😂😂😂 You mentioned the helmets, when I was thinking " Hey I have metal flake orange helmet like that from the 80's "

Poking the ground for land- mines !? Ok *boom* ..... "somebody found one!"

As others have already said, this is not Spetznaz training - this is part of the selection process. Training starts later. Hence a lot of Jameson's comments are way off the mark.

An interesting film, very enjoyable with some good commentary. I've seen a few of your films and have enjoyed them. May I add some constructive criticism? I find that quite often when you pause the film to make a comment, you're not pausing at a natural break in the film and it can be a bit frustrating to have the film suddenly cut off mid-sentence. As a suggestion, maybe try watching the film through and making notes for what you wish to comment on and making a note of the time stamp so you can then go back through the film and pause the film at the marked points, such as the end of a sentence to provide a more natural break and provide better continuity. But keep up the good work - it's great to hear your opinion and views drawn from your experience and knowledge.

I knew a Speznat comrade. In training you can be even 1 day later than he, so you would have to listen to your senior. . He was told by a senior to "stand here and blow on this lightbulb until it goes out". Even after 8 years of karate, Aikido, and judo this guy was hard to spar with. And he played one hell of a game of chess. Miss you, "Sam ".

The Helmets they wear is to reflect the special unit they are in. The bus which picks up these special Soldiers has a wheelchair lift.

*No one knows who is the "Best" SF group out there. An individual would have to have a concrete experience in each of the "Teams" to generalize who is bestowed the most Elite.* _It is the equivalent of asking "Who is the best Promqueen?" I did not sleep with all of them, I would not know. Good to go. Carry on._ 🇺🇸🇬🇧

This is one-day event. March in full gear, shooting range, obstacle course, physical test, fighting, one from another.

The answer to the question of the stripped red undershirts was answered by the russian soilder,Crimson meaning red

British SAS and SBS are the strongest SF group because they can do the exact same as the SEALs or Spetsnaz but the uk have a tiny budget compared to the US or Russia so they work with what they’ve got instead of Area 51 choppers and get the same result

This dude just called the Altyn a "motorcycle helmet" LMAO 😂

You need to make merch that says " put that in the comments"!!! Best saying ever!

Here in Switzerland we always use live ammo

This is the national guard special forces. If you want best Spetsnaz, look up Alfa and Vympel Spetsnaz

The helmets are Altyns but without the face shield.

Many different units have their own special striped shirts. The helmet and cuirass are extremely heavy.

The rolling trains the ears not to cause dizziness. The flip into a fighting stance near the end shows if soldiers keep their balance or get dizzy/disoriented.

The best sf groups, are the ones we don't know about.

For your point on the whole parkour thing, it's a means of increasing the soldier's mobility in a specific situation. It's completely unconventional at any point and really risky to do it at all, but some scenarios could possibly arrise where unconventional means may be used. The soldier must be able to move around, jump, etc, as freely and as effectively as possible. Again I really don't agree with the whole thing myself but their land, their rules.

Ruck marches can definitely be made easier with certain precautions but like you said the discomfort/pain is going to happen at some point. I never did understand the people who fell out though. A lot of times the fact that there was someone behind me was enough to keep me from slowing down and at some point I had to kind of just lower my brain to 3rd gear and put myself on autopilot to get through things like that. The more you think about when the finish line is, the harder it gets.

Love land nav. It came as second nature! A map, good compass,declination diagram, protractor and some ranger beads, I can get anywhere I need to go. Just love it.

This is one the best reactions I’ve ever seen. A nice balance of talking and watching

The rolling down the hill is just an additional way to put stress on the recruits. I'd imagine, it's quite tiring with all the gear and keeping the weapon in running order.

That 11k run with obstacles is what we do in the US army infantry after our final FTX. Starts at midnight and it ended at 6pm that day. Near the end they have us break down a M249 and put it back together as a group. In the beginning mile they hit is with artillery simulators and tagged guys as dead and needed to be carried. I ended up carrying like 9 M16s for a mile at least lol. Mind you the FTX we were on was 75% fire guard which means 75% of the unit had to be awake at all times. Adds up to about 2 hours of sleep a night. This was in 2003 i dunno what its like now but we were smoked.

Those shirts are called Telnyashka. The color indicates which branch of service they're in. Blue is Navy, light blue is Airborne, black is Naval Infantry (Russian Marines), green is Border Guards, Maroon is OMON (SWAT), red is National Guard.

Я английский не понимаю но смотреть очень интересно I don't understand English but it's very interesting to watch

Also the Helmets that they wear are a heavier bulkier and older varient of their standard combat helmet design specifically made for qualification and training excercises to make it uncomfortable and add more weight.

The reason for striped shirts is that it makes it easier to tear them in case you need a bandage in a pinch they are 100% cotton and have a light perforations along the stripes.

Martial arts is breaking bricks ? I was in martial arts for 20 years, and had no idea. Thank you for teaching me, sir !

best sf group is the one that no one knows exists

KCT is definitely one of the best SOF, in the US for example you have way more people so the operators can be less specialized + only 8 of 100 make the selection test average, understaffing can bring alot of positive things for the unit.

These guys are not military, but a quasi police special unit. Hence the riot gear and tactics. For some reason, after all these years, Americans still get it wrong about SpecNaz. There is no single Specnaz. There are special purpose units in Navy, Army, Intelligence etc. These guys are supposed to deal with domestic terrorists and criminals. They are not trained to fight wars. Some map nav or sapper training is there because of the war in Chechnya, which was a counter domestic terrorism operation.

I got to agree with previous comments this is not the Spetsnaz training but a selection process for it they check if the person if fit for the job also to answer one of your questions about why they train for riots, its because Spetsnaz is not only a combat formation they are part of everything which ranges from terrorist eliminations to search and rescue missions they are kind of jacks of all traits. My dad was part of it during the Soviet Union.

The British Army would have trained with the riot shields and batons for deployment in Northern Ireland and Iraq as well I believe

Those helmets are designed to have the face shield attached, they look weird with out it but they still offer good protection

“Put it in the comments, let me know what you guys think, have you hear of this before” lol I Love you Travels

I get the impression this is not the training, really enjoying this videos.

We don't talk about lemons! It's highly classified... But nice try my Western spy!

Hard to refer to "Spetsnaz" on the whole as a single unit in today's government. It's a designation for everyone from Law Enforcement, to Interior Ministry, to the Military. They are the best of the best of each branch of the military and various paramilitaries. They could be posted anywhere from Syria, to riot duty at a gulag in Siberia.

3:50 That "bicycle helmet" saved countless soldier's heads from being shred by frag grenades.

the spetsnaz is multi purpuse, and this is just a training video where the best go on to join the real deal btw

Can confirm from the middle east regarding stoppages and failure to fire, there's no competition between AK and M4, and that's why they make us clean the M4's all the time :)

I'm all in for the lads from both SAS and SBS. 😃

The selection is a lot less scary than I thought it would be.

My personal favorite SF is Delta. IDK why, I just love it