Soviet officers

&nbsp Various officers in the Soviet military. The officers are usually of a high rank and maintain order at the base.

History
After the Soviets failed to set up a missile base in Cuba, various Soviet officers were relocated to a Colombian peninsula to maintain order at the base, or in the case of female officers, do desk work.

During Operation Snake Eater, various GRU officers under the command of Colonel Volgin were stationed in Tselinoyarsk at Graniny Gorki and Groznyj Grad. EVA also disguised herself as a KGB officer held against her will by Volgin by the name of Tatyana in order to infiltrate Groznyj Grad. Raikov was also one of the higher ranking officers within Tselinoyarsk, below only Volgin, to which he frequently abused his authority. Snake managed to knock Raikov out and disguise himself as him in order to infiltrate the West Wing of Groznyj Grad's weapons lab to rescue Sokolov, although it backfired. Volgin was eventually killed by Snake, Raikov was evacuated from the base at some point before Snake returned to Groznyj Grad, Tatyana escaped with Snake, and the rest of the GRU officers were presumably killed either from the bombs detonating from the main weapons lab or from The Boss destroying both Groznyj Grad and Graniny Gorki with the last Davy Crockett.

Post-Snake Eater
During Detente, the Soviet officers, alongside the other personnel, were abandoned by the Soviet government, with their supply shipments and communication channels being cut in order to allow the world to think they went renegade in the event that the missile base was discovered. Because of this, most of the Soviet officers felt sore about this betrayal, although one of the officers, the head of the base Colonel Skowronski, seemed to retain his loyalty to the Soviet Union despite this. In addition, shortly after Volgin's demise, Raikov was stripped of his rank of Major due to his frequent abuse of his authority and promptly exiled to the San Hieronymo Peninsula shortly after it was abandoned, where the soldiers later imprisoned him within the Western Wilderness and frequently humiliated him.

After Gene and his FOX unit took over, the Soviet Officers of both genders were tasked with securing the base. However, one of the officers, despite his bitterness towards the Soviet government for abandoning them, was shocked when he learned that FOX was apparently intending to launch their stolen secret weapon into Russia. The officer, after Snake stole the launch documents, was later imprisoned beneath his stationed area, the Soviet patrol base. Various female Soviet officers were frequently stationed at the security base and the warhead storage facility, although a male officer that manned the security room was present in the latter location. A female Soviet officer was later imprisoned in the warhead storage facility, due to factors such as homesickness, low morale, as well as having loyalty problems. Colonel Skowronski, the former base commander, was also ousted from power by Gene, and was forced into hiding at the harbor. Various Soviet officers of both genders later defected to Naked Snake's resistance group in order to stop Gene. Colonel Skowronski's hiding spot was later uncovered by Python, who was searching for Naked Snake and later imprisoned within a cattle cage onboard the tanker, although he was later freed by Naked Snake. The resistance later attempted to interrogate a Soviet officer in charge of the silo in regards to the whereabouts of Naked Snake after the latter was captured.

Behind the scenes
The Officer disguise (while wearing the Raikov mask) in Metal Gear Solid 3 is the only disguise that allows for Snake to get away with actions that would normally break cover, although attack dogs will remain suspicious. If the player hides within a cardboard box while wearing the Officer disguise/Raikov mask, the guard will initially wonder what the box was there for, and eventually uncover it, although they will salute the player upon discovering him instead of sounding an alert, due to their thinking that he is Major Raikov. The player can also salute the soldiers when prompted, often to keep the player's cover maintained. If the player hits a Soviet officer anywhere while disguised as Raikov, the Soviet officer will say in a nervous tone "Forgive me for troubling you, sir!". On a slightly related note, the Officer disguised (when used with the Raikov mask) is also the only disguise where other officers won't get suspicious of Snake if seen from the front.

In Portable Ops, the player can recruit various officers. They usually carry weapons, ammunition, and rations. They also have three character models. In addition, because of the recruitment procedure of Portable Ops, the officers won't grow suspicious of the player if the player uses an officer for the mission of the same gender as the other officers (barring Raikov), given that they don't commit suspicious actions (such as rolling, pointing a weapon, or crawling).