Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was established in May 1992 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on the 25th of December 1991. Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov initially worked to create unified forces for the Commonwealth of Independent States before President Boris Yeltsin created the new ministry.
Anatoly Serdyukov launched the New Look reform alongside Chief of the General Staff General Nikolai Makarov in October 2008 to transform a conventional mobilization army into a permanently combat-ready force. These changes merged the Air Defence Forces with the Air Force and replaced nine older military districts with four new ones.
Over 48,000 personnel had been deployed to Syria by 2017, with 90 percent of Aerospace Forces pilots rotating through there before a drawdown announced in November 2017. Russian forces assisted Syrian Arab Armed Forces in offensives across Hama, Homs, and Aleppo regions starting from September 2015.
Five military districts now exist including Moscow, Leningrad, Southern, Central, and Eastern under the command structure established after 2010. The Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command was established in 2015 but dissolved into the Leningrad district by 2024.
In December 2022, the maximum age for conscription rose to 30 years old while proposals existed to restore the original two-year term. All male citizens aged 18 to 27 must perform twelve months of service under Russia's hybrid conscription system.