12th Chief Directorate
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))