The first units of what would become the Special Operations Forces were transferred from the GRU in 2009 as part of the continuing 2008 Russian military reform.[24] The Special Operations Forces Command was established in 2012 and announced in March 2013 by the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.[2][26] According to Gerasimov, the SOF was designed as a strategic-level asset, elite special operations force units of the KSSO whose primary missions would be foreign interventions including sabotage, high-value target eliminations, foreign internal defense operations and undertaking the most complex, clandestine and classified special operations and missions for protecting interests of the Russian Federation.[27][28]