Sokolov

Full name Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov. The premier weapons developer in the Soviet Union, head of the secret design bureau OKB-754. He participated in the 1960 Vostok project, designing the multi-engine cluster on the A-1 Vostok rocket. He wanted to continue his rocket research, but was instead made head of a secret weapons bureau. He began development on the Shagohod and its synthetic intermediate-range ballistic extension system. He grew afraid of the weapon he had created and defected along with his family to the United States, but when the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted in 1962, Soviet premier Khrushchev secretly demanded Sokolov's return in exchange for removing his missile bases from Cuba.

Back in the hands of the Soviet Union, Sokolov resumed his work on the Shagohod at design bureau OKB-754, though he and the Shagohod were captured by Colonel Volgin and Major Ocelot of the GRU and sent to Groznyj Grad. There, Sokolov brought the Shagohod near its final stage of completion.

In 1964, during Operation Snake Eater, he made contact with Naked Snake, and agent of the US Special Forces unit FOX. But he was caught and tortured by Colonel Volgin, and his eventual fate was uncertain.

In 1970, he reappeared on the San Hieronymo Peninsula on the coast of Colombia, calling himself "Prividyenie" (Ghost). He developed two new Metal Gears, Metal Gear RAXA and the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear (ICBMG).