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This Uzbek police officer wears a uniform patterned in the blue urban version of the Russian Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del (trans. Russian: 'Ministry of Internal Affairs', MVD) 'reed' pattern and a beige militsiya utility vest. He also wears an American M2 helmet. [Image: The Guns Network.]

Kamyshovyy risunok, urban variant
Russian Federation

Historically, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russian: Министерство внутренних дел, trans. Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del, MVD) issues regular army uniforms to its interal forces and special operations units. In the early 1990s, however, the MVD began to field distinctive patterns of its own. Among these are four-colour versions of army woodland camouflage uniforms and lightweight 1968/69 camouflaged summer concealing overalls (Russian: Камуфлированный летний маскировочный комбинезон, trans. kamuflirovannyy letniy maskirovochnyy kombinezon, KLMK), for use by special detachments deployed in southern republics.

Among the newer MVD patterns is the 'reed figure' (Russian: камышовый рисунок, trans. kamyshovyy risunok) camouflage pattern. Known simply as reed pattern, in the West, this camouflage was developed specifically for the tropical camouflage uniforms that were issued to Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs (Russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел, trans. Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del, VV MVD) units fighting in Chechnya.

Like the earlier MVD Tigr pattern, kamyshovyy risunok camouflage exists in woodland variants and blue urban variants. The blue version, shown here, is a three-colour camouflage pattern, comprising jagged, hard-edged dark brown and desert blue splinters on an ice-blue background. As was the case with the 1990 3-Ts family of camouflage patterns, the design elements are aligned vertically, rather than horizontally.

kamouflage.net is grateful to Scott Trerrotola, for his invaluable contribution to this article.

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