The Russian Navy or VMF (Russian: Военно-Морской Флот (ВМФ) - Voyenno- Morskoy Flot (VMF) or Military Maritime Fleet) is the naval arm of the Russian armed forces. The international designation of Russian naval vessels is "RFS" - "Russian Federation Ship".
The present Russian Navy was formed from the Soviet Navy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War in 1991.
The Russian Navy possesses most of the former Soviet naval forces, which is currently composed of the Northern Fleet, the Russian Pacific Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, the Caspian Flotilla, Naval Aviation, Naval Infantry (marines) and coastal artillery.
Recently approved, a rearmament program until 2015 for the first time in Soviet and Russian history puts the development of the navy on an equal footing with strategic nuclear forces. Out of 4.9 trillion rubles ($192.16 billion) allocated for military rearmament, 25% will go into building new ships. "We are already building practically as many ships as we did in Soviet times," First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said during a visit to Severodvinsk. "The problem now is not lack of money, but how to optimize production so that the navy can get new ships three, not five, years after laying them down."

Origins
Main article: Imperial Russian Navy
The regular Russian Navy was created at the behest of Peter the Great. During the Second Azov campaign of 1696 against Turkey, the Russians employed for the first time 2 battleships, 4 fireships, 23 galleys and 1300 strugs, built on the Voronezh River. After the Azov fortress was taken, the Boyar Duma understood the vital importance of the Navy for successful warfare and passed a decree on commencing the construction of the navy on October 20, 1696. This date is considered the official birthday of the regular Russian Navy.
During the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, the Russians built the Baltic Fleet. In 1703-1723, the main base of the Baltic Fleet was located in St. Petersburg and then in Kronstadt. Other bases were later established in Vyborg, Helsingfors, Revel and Åbo. At first, Vladimirsky Prikaz was in charge of shipbuilding. Later on, these functions were transferred to the Russian Admiralty.
Basic principles of the Russian Navy, its educational and training methods, as well as methods for conducting military action were all summarized in the Naval Charter (1720). Peter the Great, Feodor Apraksin, Alexey Senyavin, Naum Senyavin, Mikhail Golitsyn are generally credited for the development of the Russian art of naval warfare. Main principles of naval warfare were further developed by Grigory Spiridov, Feodor Ushakov, and Dmitry Senyavin.
The Russo-Turkish Wars of Catherine the Great resulted in the establishment of the Black Sea Fleet, with its bases in Sevastopol and Kherson. It was at that time that Russian warships started to venture into the Mediterranean on a regular basis. In 1770, Grigory Spiridov's squadron gained supremacy in the Aegean Sea by destroying the Turkish fleet in the Battle of Chesma. After having advanced to the Danube, the Russians formed the Danube Military Flotilla for the purpose of guarding the Danube estuary from the Turks.
During the Mediterranean expedition of 1799, Fyodor Ushakov single-handedly carved out the Greek Republic of Seven Islands, proceeding to clear from the French Corfu and all the Ionian islands. His squadron then blocked the French bases in Italy, notably Genoa and Ancona, and successfully assaulted Naples and Rome. Ushakov, proclaimed a patron saint of the Russian Navy in the 21st century, was succeeded in command by Dmitry Senyavin who reasserted Russian control of the southern Adriatic, disrupted Dubrovnik's sea trade, and destroyed the Ottoman Fleet in the Battle of Athos (1807). Between 1803 and 1855, Russian sailors undertook over 40 circumnavigations and distant voyages, which played an important role in exploration of the Far East and culminated in Faddei Bellingshausen's discovery of Antarctica.
Notwithstanding these triumphs, Russia's slow technical and economic development in the first half of the 19th century caused her to fall behind other world powers in the field of steamboat construction. It was in 1826 that the Russians built their first armed steamboat Izhora. At the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853, steamships were few and sailing ships heavily predominated. The Battle of Sinope, won by Pavel Nakhimov, is remembered in history as the last significant naval battle involving sailing ships. During the Siege of Sevastopol in 1854-1855, Russian sailors set an example of using all means possible for defending their base from land and sea. Although the Russians introduced modern naval mining in the Baltic and repelled the Siege of Petropavlovsk in the Pacific, Sevastopol was finally surrendered on honourable terms. In accordance with the Treaty of Paris, Russia lost its right to have a military fleet in the Black Sea.
As a consequence, the Russian sailing fleet lost its significance and was rapidly replaced by steamboats, including the first steel armored gunship Opyt and one of the first seafaring ironclads Pyotr Velikiy. On January 16, 1877 Admiral Stepan Makarov became the first to launch torpedoes from a boat in combat. He also proposed the idea and oversaw the construction of the world's first ocean-going icebreaker "Yermak", commanding it in two arctic expeditions in 1899 and 1901. At about the same time, Aleksey Krylov elaborated the modern floodability theory.
The Russian Navy was considered the third strongest in the world on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, which turned to be a catastrophe for the Russian military in general and the Russian Navy in particular. Although neither party lacked courage, the Russians were defeated by the Japanese in the Battle of Port Arthur, which was the first time in warfare that mines were used for offensive purposes. The battleships of the Baltic Fleet sent to the Far East were lost in the Battle of Tsushima.
Soon after the war Russia devoted a significant portion of its military spending to an ambitious shipbuilding program aimed at replacing lost battleships with modern dreadnoughts. During World War I, the fleets played a limited role in the Eastern Front, due to heavy defensive and offensive mining on both sides. Characteristically, the Black Sea Fleet succeeded in mining the Bosporus, thus preventing the Ottoman Fleet from entering the Black Sea. After the revolution forced Russia to quit the war, the Baltic Fleet was evacuated from Helsinki and Tallinn to Kronstadt during the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet.

The Imperial Russian Navy
Main article: Soviet Navy
For the most part, Russian sailors welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which they participated. Earlier, in 1905, sailors of the Imperial Russian battleship Potemkin in the Black Sea Navy revolted. In 1906 rebellious soldiers gained control of some Helsinki coastal fortifications during events known as the Viapori Rebellion, which was subsequently put down, following bombardments from ships of the Baltic Fleet which remained loyal to the Tsarist government. The first ship of the Soviet Navy could be considered to be the rebellious Imperial Russian cruiser Aurora, whose blank shot from a forecastle gun signaled the October Revolution. In March 1921, the sailors of Kronstadt rebelled against the Bolsheviks, demanding freedom of speech and closing of concentration camps, but this belated revolt was ruthlessly suppressed by Leon Trotsky. After the Revolution, the Navy's restoration was slow, and only with the beginning of industrialisation in 1930 was a large shipbuilding program developed, but not accomplished before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. As a result, the Soviet Navy during World War II was comprised of some old World War I-era ships, some modern pre-war built cruisers and destroyers, as well as a number of torpedo boats.
Unfortunately for the Soviets, much of their fleet on the Baltic Sea was blocked in Leningrad and Kronstadt by Finnish and German minefields during 1941–1944 and maimed by mines and air attacks, nevertheless numerous sorties by attack boats and submarines actions were held. On the Black sea with the loss of main naval base - Sevastopol, and effective actions of axis aviation as well as minefields navy limited the efficiency of large surface ships. The Northern Fleet, composed mostly of destroyers (World War I Novik-class and more modern project 7 and 7u vessels), played a major role in anti-aircraft and anti-submarine defence of allied convoys heading to Murmansk.
During the Cold War, the Soviets gave their navy a number of missions, in addition to its role as one of the legs of the nuclear triad, the navy was supposed to destroy American SSBNs and carrier groups, interdict NATO lines of communications, and assist the ground forces in continental theatre offensives.
In some respects, including speed and reactor technology Soviet submarines were, and remain, some of the world's best. Their primary shortcomings were insufficient noise dampening (American boats were quieter) and sonar technology. The Soviets possessed numerous purpose-built guided missile submarines, such as the Oscar class, as well as many ballistic missile submarines and attack submarines. The Soviet navy's Typhoon class boats are the world's largest submarines. The Soviet attack submarine force was, like the rest of the navy, geared towards the interception of NATO convoys, but also targeted American aircraft carrier battle groups.

The Soviet Navy
The Collapse of the Soviet Union led to a severe decline in the Russian Navy. Defence expenditure was severely reduced. Many ships were scrapped or laid up as accommodation ships at naval bases, and the building programme was essentially stopped. However Sergey Gorshkov's buildup during the Soviet period had emphasised ships over support facilities, and Gorshkov had also retained ships in service that were beyond their effective lifetimes, so a reduction was due anyway.

Shipbuilding
In the last years of the 1990s naval activity was very low. Even at the height of the Kosovo war crisis a planned battlegroup deployment to the Mediterranean was reduced to the dispatch of the intelligence ship Liman. 2003 saw a major increase in activity, including several major exercises. A May joint exercise with the Indian Navy saw two Pacific Ocean Fleet destroyers and four vessels from the Black Sea Fleet, led by Moskva, deploy for three months into the Indian Ocean. The largest out of area deployment for a decade, the INDRA 2003's exercise highlight was a series of missile launches by two Tu-160s and four Tu-95s which made a 5,400 mile round trip flight from Engels air bases to the exercise area.

Structure

List of Russian Navy ships and submarines for current strength of the Russian Navy
List of Russian Navy frigates
List of Russian Navy cruisers
List of Russian Navy equipment