Chapter 7 - INF Closeout Inspections

		Routine Closeout Inspections
		Following the baseline period, declarations of INF missile sites as closed out became an important gauge of treaty progress, especially in the early months. In the Memorandum of Understanding, the Soviet Union had declared 957 shorter-range INF missiles; these had to be eliminated within 18 months.¹⁵ The United States had identified 169 shorter-range INF missiles that would have to be eliminated in the same time period. Routine, steady missile eliminations signaled adherence to the treaty; so too did a steady rate of notifications of missile sites being closed out. The first stage in closing out a missile operating base was the movement of the INF missiles from the base to the elimination sites. This movement required 30 days' advance notice via the NRRC message system to the inspecting party. The transit of the INF missiles had to be completed within 25 days.¹⁶ When all of the missiles had been moved, the operating base's missile support structure dismantled or destroyed, and all INF missile system activity ceased, then the inspected party could declare, through an NRRC message, that the base had been closed out.

Dismantling the Soviet INF missile base at Novosysoyevka was typical. Located near the Sikote-Alin mountain range in the Soviet province bordering the Pacific Ocean, Novosysoyevka was an SS-12 base. On July 1, 1988, a train loaded with 14 SS-12 launchers and 4 missile transporter vehicles left Novosysoyevka station, bound for the elimination site at Stan'kovo in Belorussia.¹⁷ The United States had been notified by official message through the Soviet NRRC of the time and places of the 7,200-kilometer journey across virtually the entire Soviet Union. On the same day, another missile train left the small station at Novosysoyevka, laden with 20 SS-12 missiles. It would arrive, after a trip of 4,200 kilometers, at the Saryozek elimination site in Kazakhstan. On July 4, a reporter from Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya visited the Novosysoyevka SS-12 base and asked Major A. Kostitsyn, the battery commander, about dismantling the site.¹⁸ "Throughout June," Kostitsyn replied, "we prepared the equipment for dispatch, for it has to cross the entire country. We missilemen have complex feelings." He explained his thoughts on dismantling operational missiles and the pride he had for his nation, which had negotiated the treaty. However, he also had concerns about his future. "Our service and life are changing. It is now my dream to enter an academy. I am a professional soldier, and I believe that I can still prove useful to the motherland in that capacity."

The remaining 17 SS-12 missiles at the Soviet missile operating base departed Novosysoyevka within a week. The site commander, Colonel Viktor Korshikov, told an Izvestiya reporter that he would remain at the missile base and become the chief site escort. "We are ready for the meeting," he said on July 5, adding, "The Americans will not find the missiles here...."¹⁹The command was prepared, he went on, to show everything stipulated in the treaty. The reporter accompanied Colonel Korshikov into the missile buildings, examining the trucks stored under canopies, looking at the pit machines and track layers. The colonel explained what equipment the American inspectors could examine.²⁰

On October 1, Lt. Colonel Nicholas Troyan, U.S. Army, led an American INF inspection team to the Novosysoyevka SS-12 missile site where they conducted the closeout inspection. The inspection lasted 24 hours on site; however, the logistics needed to get this American inspection team to and from the site illustrated how difficult and arduous these INF inspections could be. In mid-August, Troyan's 10-person inspection team met in Washington, flew to San Francisco and then to Tokyo.²¹

Soviet Major Igor Kirichenko and Lt. Colonel Nicholas Troyan at Saryozek, USSR.

"We are ready for the meeting."

Colonel Korshikov

	American teams in the USSR
Team Troyan in Kazakhstan at the joining of the Siberian-Turkistan Railroad.		Team Nelson at Saint Basil's Cathederal in Red Square. U.S. Team at the Tsars' Cannon in the Kremlin.