Operation Snake Eater was a CIA operation conducted in Tselinoyarsk, USSR, in August and September 1964. Its official aims were to assassinate the founding member of the Cobra Unit, The Boss, and to eliminate the threat posed by the nuclear-armed Shagohod weapon. In truth, the entire operation was part of an already existing plan to recover the Philosophers' Legacy from Soviet hands, which had been revised in the wake of Virtuous Mission's failure and in particular Volgin's destruction of the Sokolov Design Bureau.