Logo during the 1960s
The Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (Spetsnaz GRU) was the special forces (spetsnaz) unit of the GRU foreign intelligence agency of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, active from 1949. The Spetsnaz GRU was founded as several special forces companies in 1949, expanding to battalions by 1957 and brigades in 1962. The GRU's Spetsnaz units were trained to destroy US weapons systems, captured Prague Airport during the Prague Spring uprising of 1968, assassinated Afghan president Hafizullah Amin during the Soviet-Afghan War, and came to have 25,000 soldiers by 1997, during which time they were engaged in the North Caucasus. In 2014, Spetsnaz forces were involved in the Crimean Crisis, as well as in the Syrian Civil War and the Russo-Ukrainian War.