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Unit intelligence profile

12th Chief Directorate

Subordinates
3
Locations
6
Profile summary
Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 31600, HQ: Moscow, Znamenskiy Pereulok 19, Commander: Lieutenant General Igor Kolesnikov, Responsible for the safe-keeping, technical maintenance, transportation, delivery, issuance, disposal of the nuclear arsenal of Russian Federation.

Assessment

Identification

This record most likely refers to the Moscow headquarters complex associated with military unit 31600 at Bolshoy Znamensky Pereulok 19 and linked in open sources to the 12th Main Directorate (12th GUMO). An official federal aviation contact list published in 2025 places v/ch 31600 at that address; separate open-source reference entries identify the same address as 12th GUMO headquarters. The official document confirms the unit and address, but does not itself spell out the directorate name, so the site identification is high-confidence rather than fully official-by-name in open sources. ([favt.gov.ru](https://favt.gov.ru/public/materials/c/0/0/4/8/c0048992d3f839d20c4a350c8f1048e0.pdf))

Mission

Russian official/state-media descriptions characterize 12th GUMO as the central military body for nuclear-technical policy and nuclear support, including storage, operation and maintenance, transport, safety, physical protection, and response to possible nuclear-weapon accidents. A Congressional Research Service review likewise states that the 12th Main Directorate is responsible for the security, transportation, and handling of warheads within Russia’s national central storage system. ([ria.ru](https://ria.ru/20220904/prazdnik-1813739882.html))

Site function

The Bolshoy Znamensky site appears to be a headquarters and administrative node rather than a publicly confirmed warhead-storage or test location. Official records place v/ch 31600 at the Moscow address, while public descriptions of 12th GUMO place storage bases, research institutes, training centers, logistics units, and test infrastructure elsewhere; that distribution supports assessing this site as command-and-coordination infrastructure. ([favt.gov.ru](https://favt.gov.ru/public/materials/c/0/0/4/8/c0048992d3f839d20c4a350c8f1048e0.pdf))

Subordinate network

Open reporting indicates that the directorate controls or oversees a specialized support network beyond Moscow. In January 2024, Interfax, citing a Defense Ministry statement, reported Shoigu inspecting the 12th Central Research Institute of the 12th Main Directorate and quoted Lt. Gen. Igor Kolesnikov on modernization of its development and testing base. TASS reporting also states that 12th GUMO includes the Special Control Service for monitoring foreign nuclear tests and the Novaya Zemlya test range. ([interfax-russia.ru](https://www.interfax-russia.ru/military/news_eng/403755))

Leadership and activity

In the sources reviewed for this briefing, the latest explicit public identification of the directorate chief was Lt. Gen. Igor Kolesnikov in 2024. On 13 June 2024, Russian and Belarusian reporting quoted him during the second stage of non-strategic nuclear-force exercises as saying 12th GUMO mobile formations delivered training nuclear munitions to field storage points and aviation sites, indicating an active deployable nuclear-support role rather than a purely custodial function. ([ria.ru](https://ria.ru/20240613/ucheniya-1952551966.html))

Command structure

Subordinate formations

3

Special Control Service

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 46179

HQ: Moscow, Rubtsovsko-Dvortsovaya Ulitsa, 2

32nd Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 13987

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 77031

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 41094

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 41094

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 30030

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 41097

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 41007

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 41056

Special Control Service Laboratory

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military unit 86665

Special Control Service HQ

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military unit 46179

Central Nuclear Weapons Storage Sites

n/a Object ''S'' (Vologda-20)

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military unit 25594

n/a Object ''S'' (Belgorod-22)

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military unit 25624

n/a Object ''S'' (Belgorod-22)

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military unit 25624

n/a Object "S" (Krasnoyarsk-26)

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military unit 51966

n/a Object "S" (Khabarovsk-47)

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military unit 34088

84th Object "S" / 84th Intervestigated Training Tactical Center

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military unit 14258

365th Object "S" (Bryansk-18)

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military unit 42685

387th Object "S" (Voronezh-45)

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military unit 14254

644th Object "S" (Irkutsk-45)

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military unit 39995

714th Object ''S'' (Mozhaysk-10)

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military unit 52025

917th Object "S" (Sverdlovsk-45)

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military unit 40274

936th Object "S" (Zlatoust-30)

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military unit 41013

936th Object "S" (Zlatoust-30)

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military unit 41013

1050th Object "S" (Saratov-63)

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military unit 25623

1201st Object "S" (Komsomolsk-on-Amur-31)

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military unit 52015

Local Nuclear Warhead Storage Sites / "Repair-Technical Bases"

n/a Repair-Technical Base

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Most likely serving the nearby 3rd Missile Brigade on 9K720 Iskander-M missile systems.

n/a Repair-Technical Base

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military unit 20336

n/a Repair-Technical Base

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military unit 20336

Geospatial index

Known places

6

6th State Central Scientific Research Test Site HQ (Object 700)

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military unit 77510

12th Central Research Institute

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military unit 51105

22nd Central Communications Center

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military unit 16685

Nuclear Warhead Assembly Plant (Zlatoust-36)

Nuclear Safety Provision Center

12th Main Directorate HQ

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 31600