18 photos showing how eerily-similar Russian and US special ops look and operate
The US Army Special Forces has some of the smartest and most lethal fighters in the world, which could explain why Russia has increasingly modeled its own Special Forces - or Spetsnaz - off its American counterparts.
Those Russian Special Forces most recently infiltrated and took over Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and they are now operating on the ground in Syria. And according to a US military official who spoke with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, they are practically indistinguishable on the battlefield.
That's not an accident. According to the Journal, Russia's military chief used a meeting with US Special Operations Command to learn more about how the US operates, in order to more closely mirror his force in Russia. Moscow has also benefited from a framework of understanding signed between the two nations that offered military-to-military exchanges and operational events, orientation at the West Point military academy for Russian cadets, and sharing of ideas among both countries' combined arms academies.
We decided to look at photos of Spetsnaz in action, along with US Special Forces. It's sometimes hard to spot the difference.