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Unit intelligence profile

Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU)

Subordinates
5
Locations
30
Profile summary
Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 45807, Commander: Admiral Igor Kostyukov

Assessment

Identification

The metadata most plausibly matches the Moscow headquarters of Russia’s Main Directorate of the General Staff (GU/GRU) on Khoroshevskoye Shosse in the Khodynka/Khoroshevsky area. U.S. Treasury sanctions listings identify the service at Khoroshevskoye Shosse 76, Moscow, while open-source reporting tied to Russian legal-registry data places the headquarters at 76B; that suffix discrepancy remains visible across public sources. The same registry-based reporting also links the address to military unit 45807. ([ofac.treasury.gov](https://ofac.treasury.gov/system/files/126/sdnnew18.pdf))

Command

As of 15 May 2025, Reuters and Interfax identified Igor Kostyukov as chief/head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff during the Istanbul delegation episode, supporting the metadata’s commander attribution. Earlier reporting from November 2018 recorded his appointment as head of Russia’s military intelligence service. ([reutersconnect.com](https://www.reutersconnect.com/item/igor-kostyukov-exits-the-consulate-general-of-the-russian-federation-in-istanbul/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjU6bmV3c21sX1JDMkVJRUE1WkdDRw))

Facility

The current headquarters complex was publicly opened in November 2006. A CRS report cites a Kremlin press release on President Putin’s visit to the new GRU headquarters on 8 November 2006; contemporaneous RIA reporting said the building was fully autonomous and designed so personnel could work, live, and use support facilities inside one secure complex. Open-source photo coverage from the visit confirms a purpose-built headquarters rather than a routine office site. ([s3.documentcloud.org](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20417616/r46616.pdf?t=1606492194840))

Operational role

This site is the central headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces’ military intelligence service under the General Staff. CRS describes the GRU/GU as a large Ministry of Defense intelligence organization subordinate to the General Staff, and U.S. cyber-related sanctions documents use the same Moscow headquarters address for the service and its aliases. That makes this location the key publicly identified institutional node for GRU leadership and administration. ([nam-sism.org](https://www.nam-sism.org/Articoli/14.%20CRISTADORO%20L%E2%80%99intelligence%20militare%20russa%20Il%20GRU%20nel%20decennio%202010-2020.pdf?utm_source=openai))

Geographic setting

The headquarters sits in Moscow’s Khodynka/Khoroshevsky defense-industrial belt. Older but still useful FAS location reporting places the compound beside the former Khodynka airfield and near major aerospace design and military facilities, placing the HQ inside a dense military-industrial district in the capital. Public sources reviewed do not reliably confirm the compound’s exact internal layout, underground infrastructure, or full resident sub-unit list. ([irp.fas.org](https://irp.fas.org/world/russia/gru/aquarium.htm))

Command structure

Subordinate formations

5

6th Directorate

Intelligence briefRF forces

Responsible for electronic and radio-technical reconnaissance.

232rd Separate Radio-Technical Battalion GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 30734

265th Separate Special Purpose Radio-Technical Regiment GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 31782

365th Separate Electronic Intelligence Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 47139

696th Separate Radio-Technical Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 31812

7th Separate Special Purpose Radio Technical Regiment GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

miltary unit 61230

80th Separate Special Purpose Radio-Technical Regiment GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 28103

884th Separate Special Purpose Electronic Intelligence Center GRU (?)

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 32367

92nd Separate Special Purpose Radio-Technical Brigade GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 64845

Moscow Intelligence Center

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 46188

Moscow Intelligence Center HQ

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 46188

2nd Operational Detachment GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 46188-2

3rd Operational Detachment GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 46188-3

4th Operational Detachment GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 46188-4

"Krug" System (THICK EIGHT)

Intelligence briefRF forces

Created in the early 1950s to track any information concerning NATO aircraft carriers of nuclear weapons and reconnaissance aircraft, such as SR-71 Blackbird.

The Krug system consisted of 12 strategic electronic reconnaissance complexes, 8 separate radio-direction-finding stations (OPPU) located on the perimeter of the territory of the USSR (one explation for the name of the system) and 4 foreign radio interception and electronic reconnaissance centers in Lourdes (Cuba), Cam Ranh ( Vietnam), Rangoon (Burma) and Mongolia (Ulan Bator). https://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/russia/krug.htm

Apparently its facilities are still operational.

n/a Separate Radio Emission Direction Finding Unit

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 34575

50th Separate Radio Emission Direction Finding Unit

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 14145

230th (or 811th) Separate Radio Emission Direction Finding Unit

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 34630

230th (or 811th) Separate Radio Emission Direction Finding Unit

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 34630

309th Central Radio Emission Direction Finding Communications Unit

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 34608

309th Central Radio Emission Direction Finding Communications Unit

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 34608

874th Separate Radio Emission Direction Finding Unit

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 48260

Communications GRU

n/a Special Purpose Communications (?) Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 44296

763rd Separate Special Purpose Radio Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 63555

120th Separate Special Purpose Radio Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 32443

55th Separate Radio Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 25503

116th Separate Special Purpose Radio Center GRU (mobile)

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 51019

3rd Special Purpose Radio Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 40263

113rd Transmitting Radio Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 32047

Short-Wave Communications Post GRU (?)

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 09755-B

134th Special Purpose Radio Receiving Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 03113

6th Special Purpose Radio Detachment GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 63895

919th Information Reception and Transmission Center GRU (?)

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 47127

Geospatial index

Known places

30

45th Separate Guards Spetsnaz Brigade

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 28337, Commander: Major General Vadim Pankov

78th Intelligence Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 35555

539th Separate Intelligence Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 10199

132nd Command Intelligence Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 23305

476th Central Information Reception and Processing Point GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 03770

547th Repair and Storage of Special Equipment Warehouse GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 92403

99th Main Special Service Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 51428

918th Receiving and Transmitting Information Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 47126

136th Special Service Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 61535

85th Main Special Service Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 26165

162nd Military-Technical Information Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 54023

152nd Preparation Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 06410

161st Preparation Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 29155

177th Separate Technology Development Management Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 40904

6th Military-Technical Information Center (Researching the Military Potential of Foreign States) GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 54726

172nd Command Intelligence Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 64501

316th Reconnaissance Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 09920, reportedly tasked with countering the technical means of foreign intelligence

462nd Training Center GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 62986

2357th Separate Radio Direction Finding Battalion

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 49555

2357th Separate Radio Direction Finding Battalion

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 49555

740th Separate Information Receiving and Processing Point GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 54341

407th Separate Space Objects Radio Emissions Reconnaissance Point GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 63553

1580th Separate Space Objects Radio Emissions Reconnaissance Point GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 51870

1580th Separate Space Objects Radio Emissions Reconnaissance Point GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 51870

849th Training Center for Junior Specialists (special radio communications) GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 17845

n/a Communications Node GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 40907

n/a Space Reconnaissance Unit GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 51430

37th Automobile Base GRU

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 44696

7th Central Advanced Courses for Intelligence Officers

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 36360

GRU HQ

Intelligence briefRF forces

military unit 45807