Russian Marines have practiced landing operations at its border with North Korea, following Pyongyang’s controversial missile launch test last week, the military said. Russian Marines servicemen and the crews of Russia’s Pacific Fleet ships Admiral Nevelskoy and Peresvet, carried out a swift, amphibious charge on a beachhead in the Primorye region, Russia’s only one to border North Korea. The Russian Marines (Morskaya Pekhota) or Russian Naval Infantry, is the amphibious force of the Russian Navy. The first Russian naval infantry force was formed in 1705, and since that time it has fought in the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the First and Second World Wars. Under Admiral Gorshkov, the Soviet Navy expanded the reach of the Naval Infantry and deployed it worldwide on numerous occasions. They, alongside the Coastal Defense Missile Artillery Forces, form part of a larger institution—the Coastal Defense Forces of the Russian Navy (Beregovye Voyska VMF Rossii).
