Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by A.R. Fomenko
VIENNA BUREAU — The men move slowly in single file, scanning the forest floor. They are in Karelia, near Russia’s border with Finland. In footage from one recent patrol, the team encounters a bomb. Like their American counterparts, they neutralize the bomb by blowing it up.
This Russian team does it with a pressure charge. The charge is likely made of octogen mixed with plastic explosive, and shaped into a block. The team tapes the blok to a branch. They tie on a rope fuse, and use a cigaret lighter to get things going. The charge rips the forest with a blast.
It’s crude, but effective. This is field-expedient EOD, Russian style. “Being a senior of a group or a senior EOD specialist means going first,” says a serviceman with the call sign Volga. He knows the risk. For the man in front, one mistake means the whole patrol could go up in smoke. “Both your life and that of comrades who walk behind depend on you,” Volga says.
This unit belongs to the 44th Army Corps, raised in 2024 as part of the Kremlin’s answer to Finland’s entry into NATO the year before. On December 17, 2023, Putin announced the resurrection of the Leningrad Military District, a move formally sealed by Presidential Decree No.141 on February 26, 2024. That same order pulled the Northern Fleet under the district’s command.
A.R. Fomenko is based out of Soldier of Fortune’s Vienna Bureau.
