The Mil Mi-8 is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of the aircraft model still continues as of 2024. In addition to its most common role as a transport helicopter, the Mi-8 is also used as an airborne command post, armed gunship, and reconnaissance platform.
The Mil Mi-17 is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production as of 2024 at two factories, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russian service. The helicopter is mostly used as a medium twin-turbine transport helicopter, as well as an armed gunship version.
On 19 August 2002, a group of Chechen fighters armed with a man-portable air-defense system brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter in a minefield, which resulted in the death of 127 Russian soldiers in the greatest loss of life in the history of helicopter aviation. It is also the deadliest aviation disaster ever suffered by the Russian Armed Forces, as well as its worst loss of life in a single day since the 1999 start of the Second Chechen War.
The Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is a branch of the Federal Security Service of Russia tasked with patrol of the Russian border.
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The Minister of Defence exercises day-to-day administrative and operational authority over the forces. The General Staff of the Armed Forces executes the instructions and orders of the president and the defence minister.
The Grozny OMON friendly fire incident took place on March 2, 2000, when an OMON unit from Podolsk, supported by paramilitary police from the Sverdlovsk Oblast in armored vehicles, opened friendly fire on a motorized column of OMON from Sergiyev Posad, which had just arrived in Chechnya to replace them.
The 2007 Shatoy Mi-8 crash occurred on April 27, 2007, when a Russian Armed Forces Mil Mi-8 helicopter carrying special forces troops and officers crashed in mountainous terrain in southern Chechnya, killing all 20 people on board.
The Transbaikal Military District was a military district of first the Soviet Armed Forces and then the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed on 17 May 1935 and included the Buryat Republic, Chita Oblast, and Yakutia. Chita was the headquarters of the district. It was finally disbanded on 1 December 1998 by being amalgamated with the Siberian Military District, though Chita remained the headquarters of the new amalgamated district.
The 2006 Russian military Mil Mi-8 crash was a helicopter crash near Vladikavkaz. The crash killed 12 Russian military men, mostly high-ranking officers, among them Lieutenant-General Pavel Yaroslavtsev, deputy chief for army logistics, Lieutenant-General Viktor Guliaev, deputy chief of army medical units, and Major-General Vladimir Sorokin.
The 2001 Grozny Mil Mi-8 crash in Chechnya killed 13 Russian military personnel, mostly senior military officers including two generals.
On November 20, 1991, an Azerbaijani Mil Mi-8 military helicopter, carrying a peacekeeping mission team consisting of 13 Azerbaijani government officials, two Russian and one Kazakhstani Ministry of Internal Affairs officials, three Azerbaijani journalists and three helicopter crew was shot down amidst heavy fighting near the village of Berdashen, also known as Karakend, in Nagorno-Karabakh. All 22 people on board were killed in the crash. The incident is known in Azerbaijan as the ''Karakend tragedy''.
Valentina Vasilyevna Rudchenko is a Russian politician and current Speaker of the Duma of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. She is a former Member of the State Duma from Chukotka AO (2016-2021).
The Garaheybat Mil Mi-17 crash occurred on 30 November 2021, during military drills of Azerbaijani State Border Service (SBS) Mil Mi-17 helicopter in the Garaheybat training zone located in the Khizi District. Fourteen people were killed and two were injured in the helicopter crash. This was the largest aircraft crash in the history of Azerbaijan's law enforcement agencies.
