Central Military District


The Order of the Red Banner Central Military District is a military district of Russia.
It is one of the five military districts of the Russian Armed Forces, with its jurisdiction primarily within the central Volga, Ural and Siberia regions of the country and Russian bases in Central Asian post-Soviet states. The Central Military District was created as part of the 2008 military reforms, and founded by Presidential Decree No.1144 signed on September 20, 2010, as an amalgamation of the Volga–Urals Military District and a majority of the Siberian Military District. The district began operation on October 21, 2010, under the command of Lieutenant-General Vladimir Chirkin.
The Central Military District is the largest military district in Russia by geographic size at and population at 54.9 million people. The district contains 29 of the 85 federal subjects of Russia: Altai Krai, Altai Republic, Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Chuvashia, Irkutsk Oblast, Kemerovo Oblast, Khakassia, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Kirov Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Kurgan Oblast, Mari El, Mordovia, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Novosibirsk Oblast, Omsk Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Penza Oblast, Perm Krai, Samara Oblast, Saratov Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Tatarstan, Tomsk Oblast, Tuva, Tyumen Oblast, Udmurtia, Ulyanovsk Oblast.
The Central Military District is headquartered in Yekaterinburg, and its current district commander is Lieutenant-General Valery Solodchuk, who has held the position since 15 February 2025.

History

It was reported that a new mountain motorised rifle brigade, the 55th, would be formed in Kyzyl, Tyva Republic, in 2015. The brigade was formed in November 2015.
In June 2015, Leslie H. Gelb wrote that the role of the Central Military District is to "orchestrate Russian engagement in local conflicts within Central Asia, to manage Russia’s bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and to supply reinforcements from its two armies either to the east or the west in the event of war" and that their purpose is to "forestall instability that might spill over into Russia and to remind everyone that Russia’s Armed Forces are mightier than China’s".
In February 2019, there were Russian-language reports that the Central Military District were to be divided, to leave a military district organisation more like the pre-2010 situation.
After the signing of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement on 9 November 2020, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh the following day for monitoring the cease-fire and the cessation of military actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. The contingent will consist of 1,960 servicemen, 90 armored vehicles, 380 units of vehicles and special equipment mainly formed of units of the 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade of the Central Military District.

Component units

The following list is mostly sourced from milkavkaz, 2017.

Ground forces

Main Directorate of General Staff

Airborne troops

Aerospace Forces

Unmanned Systems Forces

  • 7th Separate Unmanned Systems Reconnaissance Strike Regiment

Joint-service ceremonial units

Leadership

Commanders

Chiefs of Staff - First Deputy Commanders

Deputy commanders

  • Deputy commander
  • * Lieutenant General Yevgeny Poplavsky
  • Deputy commander for Military-Political Work and Head of the Department for Military-Political Work
  • * Major General Rustam Minnekaev