2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division
Identity
This record matches the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division, military unit 23626, headquartered in Kalininets, Naro-Fominsk urban okrug, Moscow Oblast. Public registry-style records place military unit 23626 in Kalininets; a CNA order-of-battle study places the 2nd Motor Rifle Division at Kalininets about 50 km west of Moscow; and Russian official reporting states that the re-created 1st Guards Tank Army includes the Tamanskaya division. After Russia re-created the Moscow Military District in 2024, the district officially included a tank army in its structure. ([companies.rbc.ru](https://companies.rbc.ru/id/1095030003750-federalnoe-gosudarstvennoe-byudzhetnoe-uchrezhdenie-federalnoe-byudzhetnoe-uchrezhdenie-vojskovaya-chast-23626/?utm_source=openai))
Garrison
Kalininets is a long-established military town tied to the Alabino garrison. Local historical material states that the settlement took its name from the Tamanskaya division and identifies it as the military town of the Alabino garrison; other public references place Kalininets roughly 34-50 km from Moscow. Nearby Alabino, Patriot Park, and Kubinka continue to host major defense exhibitions and dynamic military demonstrations, underscoring the area’s role as a principal Moscow-region training and showcase hub. ([cgnf.ru](https://www.cgnf.ru/article/1935/iz-istorii-poselka-kalininets))
Structure
Open-source order-of-battle research identifies the Kalininets site as a full combined-arms divisional cantonment, not just an administrative headquarters. CNA describes the division as fielding two motor rifle regiments, one tank regiment, artillery and air-defense regiments, plus logistics, engineer-sapper, and reconnaissance battalions. That makes the site a dense maneuver-force base with organic combat support and sustainment inside one garrison area. ([cna.org](https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/06/Russian-Forces-in-the-Western-Military-District.pdf))
Readiness
Official Russian reporting indicates the division remains a priority readiness and modernization formation. TASS reported delivery of 20 upgraded T-72B3 tanks to military unit 23626 in 2017 and new Tornado-G multiple-launch rocket systems to the Tamanskaya division in 2015. In January 2020, a readiness check in Moscow Oblast involved more than 4,500 personnel and about 1,000 weapons and vehicles from the division. ([tass.ru](https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/4122594?utm_source=openai))
Operational relevance
The Kalininets-based division is operationally significant, not merely ceremonial. A 2021 CNA assessment judged that the post-2014 re-expansion of the 2nd Motor Rifle Division and 4th Tank Division around Moscow was meant to restore a heavier maneuver force capable of missions ranging from lower-intensity operations to high-tempo warfare. Separately, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine reported that information it collected placed the division’s 147th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment in Bucha in March 2022; the same report explicitly notes that a unit’s presence in an area does not by itself establish responsibility for specific violations unless separately stated. ([cna.org](https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/06/Russian-Forces-in-the-Western-Military-District.pdf))