CSKA Moskva

Moscow already had a handball history running through the old Soviet-era CSKA section and its later offshoot in Chekhovo before the current club took shape in 2017, first under the name Spartak Moscow and only renamed CSKA in March 2020. The rebrand gave the capital a men's side carrying the army club's colours again, distinct on paper from its predecessors but playing the same fixture that matters most to its supporters: the derby against Chekhovskiye Medvedi.

A women's team followed in 2019, and within two seasons it had reached the last four of the EHF Champions League, a European run the men's side has yet to match. Both teams share the Volleyball Arena Dynamo, a 3,500-seat hall that has become their base since 2021, and both go by the nickname Armeys.

The women's team built the deeper trophy run first, taking the Superleague in 2021 before the men had won it at all, and it has since added the title in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The men caught up domestically, winning the Superleague in 2023, 2024 and 2026 and adding the Russian Cup and Super Cup in the same stretch. Daria Dmitrieva , an Olympic champion, has carried the women's team's biggest individual credential through those seasons, while the men's squad has relied on strength across positions — Alexander Zhitnikov and Dmitry Khomov among the names who came through as the club built its identity separately from the older CSKA sides.

What neither team has done is turn Russian domestic dominance into a European trophy.