Russian tortoises are from a large natural habitat range throughout areas of eastern Iran, northwestern Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as southeastern Russian, northwestern China and several other countries. Each locale has slight differences, however there are three major subspecies of Russian tortoises. These subspecies are not necessarily different Russian tortoise breeds, however there are slight differences between them.

T. h. horsfieldii (T. h. h.)
T. h. kazachstanica (T. h. k.)
T. h. rustamovi (T. h. r.)

Compare Russian Tortoise Subspecies

The differences between the subspecies are very slight and minimal. It can take a very trained eye to determine what subspecies your Russian tortoise is.

	T. h. horsfieldii	T. h. kazachstanica	T. h. rustamovi
Carapace shape	Moderately flat. Almost as wide as they are long.	Convex. Flat and almost as wide as long	Domed. Long and narrow
Posterior carapace curvature	Abrupt curve	Abrupt curve	Moderate, gradual curve
Carapace color	Brown/Green-ish	Yellow-ish	Ivory
Nodule on center vertebral scutes	Yes	No	Yes
Ray pattern on scutes	Yes	No	No

No one kept track of where Russian tortoises were extracted from when imported to the United States. However most of the pet Russian tortoises in the United States are either the T. h. kazachstanica or the T. h. rustamovi.

There Some publications and research shows that there are more subspecies of Russian tortoises, like the T. h. bogdanovi, T. h. kuznetzovi and the T. h. terbishi.

These different subspecies are not necessarily different Russian tortoise breeds. Each subspecies is derived from a main species of tortoise.

Can I Breed Different Russian Tortoise Breeds?

Yes. And for many years , since Russian tortoises have been exported from their native lands, the surviving adults have been bred together. Besides no records being kept in the very beginning, this is a huge reason why it can be so hard to differentiate which subspecies of Russian tortoise is which. The different features have muddled.