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In August 1998 it was reported that more than 70 airfields would be closed as part of the Air Force's larger effort to streamline its operations. According to the Defense Ministry, some 80 airfields with runways longer than 1800 meters would remain open. The airfields' closure may free scarce budget funds for the maintenance and reconstruction of the remaining airfields, the bulk of which were constructed during the 1950s through 1970s and have exceeded their expected service life.

Russian airbases generally have their own energy plant apart from the connection to the normal power grid, and of course plenty of mobile generators.

During mid 1993 at a Russian air base at Akhtubinsk, near Astrakhan, on the Volga River, a display of aircraft was permitted and only a few journalists new about it to come. Akhtubinsk Air Base up until this point was a "closed" facility for the testing or air weapons.

On 21 February 1994 five armed men forced their way into the guardhouse of the Russian air base at Amari (Suurkula), searched for weapons, and burned down the post. The base was the last airfield still under Russian military control from which combat aircraft had been removed, but was still frequently used by military transport planes. The Russian Foreign Ministry delivered an official protest to Estonian Ambassador Juri Kahn, demanding exhaustive explanations from Estonia and punishment for the organizers and participants in the attack that was described as an "extremely dangerous deliberate action which may lead to unpredictable consequences."

The Ukrainian defense ministry protested the alleged planned takeover of over 20 TU-22M Backfire aircraft by Russia in upcoming Black Sea Fleet military exercises on 4 May 1994. According to the defense ministry, Russia planned to have the planes, which belong to the naval aviation arm of the Black Sea Fleet, fly out of their air bases at Oktyabrskoye and Vesoloye in Crimea to the Russian air base at Krymsk in Krasnodar krai. The Ukrainian defense ministry said that any attempt to transfer military technology or other Black Sea Fleet assets outside Ukraine would be regarded as illegal acts by Ukraine and would worsen the problem of dividing the fleet. Andrei Grachev, head of the Black Sea Fleet press center, denied that there was any truth to the allegation. According to Grachev the charge was a "figment of the imagination" of the Ukrainian defense ministry.