The Russian Navy or Voyenno-Morskoy Flot Rossii (VMF) or literally Military Maritime Fleet of Russia) is the naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces.

The present Russian Navy succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States which succeeded the Soviet Navy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War in 1991.

The regular Russian Navy was originally established by Peter the Great (Peter I) in October of 1696. Ascribed to Peter I is the oft quoted statement: "A ruler that has but an army has one hand, but he who has a navy has both." The symbols of the Russian Navy, the St. Andrew's flag and ensign (seen to the right), and most of its traditions were established personally by Peter I.

The Russian Navy possesses the vast majority of the former Soviet naval forces, and currently comprises the Northern Fleet, the Russian Pacific Fleet, the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Russian Baltic Fleet, the Russian Caspian Flotilla, Naval Aviation, and the Coastal Troops (consisting of the Naval Infantry and the Coastal Missile and Artillery Troops).

Recently approved, a rearmament program until 2015 puts, for the first time in Soviet and Russian history, the development of the navy on an equal footing with strategic nuclear forces. The program covering the period until 2015 is expected to replace 45% of the military inventory in the army and navy. 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 Sergey Ivanov said during a visit to Severodvinsk in July 2007, "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." According to the list of ships in the Russian Navy today the tonnage of the active navy is approximately 1,300,000, the ships in reserve has a tonnage of more than 300,000, this makes the Russian Navy by far the second largest in the world with a combined tonnage of 1,600,000. The Russian Navy has suffered severely since the dissolution of the Soviet Union due to insufficient maintenance, lack of funding and hereby training of personnel and timely replacement of equipments. Another setback is attributed to Russia`s domestic shipbuilding industry which is reported to have been in decline as to their capabilities of constructing contemporary hardware efficiently. Some analysts even say that because of this Russia`s naval capabilities have been facing a slow but certain "irreversible collapse".

Russian Navy Военно-морской флот России Voyenno-morskoy flot Rossii
Ensign of the Russian Navy (top) and Naval jack
Active	January 17, 1992 - present
Country	Russian Federation (earlier - Soviet Union)
Type	Navy
Size	233 ships
Anniversaries	Navy Day (last Sunday in July)
Commanders
Current commander	Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy