THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING _ AND UTAH IS PREPARED

Like most Americans, Pam Pettinger didn't lie awake nights worrying about nuclear disarmament, let alone ever think one day she might play a bit part in it.

So when Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev inked the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty last Dec. 8, Pettinger's attitude was basically ambivalent. Even after the U.S. Senate finally ratified the treaty last month, she was ho-hum.Until a knock on her door three weeks ago.

The Russians were coming.

Pettinger, a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, was told she'd have to move to another building immediately to accommodate Soviet arms-control verifiers who would soon be setting up temporary housekeeping at her North Temple apartment complex until permanent facilities are built elsewhere.

Because of her schedule, Pettinger said, she rarely sees a local newspaper or TV news and admits to not even being aware the Russians were coming to Utah.

And then suddenly her apartment complex manager is telling her they're moving into her apartment.

Pettinger isn't the only person whose world had to be rearranged in recent weeks due to the anticipated arrival this weekend of a Soviet contingent to monitor American compliance with the INF treaty.

A five-member Soviet advance team is already in the Salt Lake Valley making preparations for their comrades, including a trip to a West Valley City K mart and other stores to shop for housewares, food and other basic supplies. An advance American team has also arrived in the Soviet city of Votkinsk to perform similar tasks.

Only one member of the advance team, engineer Oleg Shagov, is staying on in Utah as part of the long-term Soviet inspection team. Amid the whir of motor-driven cameras and reporters scribbling furiously in their notebooks, Shagov spoke briefly with reporters Wednesday during an impromptu news conference at his soon-to-be home at the Sun Arbor Apartments.

Speaking through a U.S. State Department interpreter, Shagov said he's generally satisfied with the way things are shaping up and predicted that all will be in order by the time the remaining 22 Soviet inspectors arrive - most likely sometime Saturday. The INF treaty provides for a ceiling of 30 Soviet inspectors in Utah.

He also noted this was his second trip to Utah. Earlier in the year he was in the Salt Lake Valley on a related fact-finding visit.

Responding to a reporter's query, Shagov didn't bat an eyelash when he said the inspectors plan to make full use of the apartment complex's amenities, including the pool, spa and tennis courts.