History Main / RenegadeRussian

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The group of military officers and KGB leaders who tried to depose Gorbachev in 1991.
* The second-latest addition to Russia's terror blacklist (February 2015) is a "People's militia named after Minin and Pozharskiy". Naming itself after the founders of an actual mass rebellion against foreign intervention in the early 1610s, it intended to combat the "Western invasion" and "corrupt and traitorous elites", including UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin himself, apparently. Based on the court charges filed against individual members in 2011-2012, a group spearheaded by GRU and paratroop veterans planned to stage an armed insurrection in Yekaterinburg and Kovrov, sabotaging most of the civic infrastructure with the small strike groups they'd formed, while also gunning down any rabbi they could get in range of.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Prigozhin Yevgeny Prigozhin]], the head of the infamous Wagner PrivateMilitaryCompany briefly became this when he lanched an abortive coup attempt against the Russian Ministry of Defence in June 2023. Prior to then, Prigozhin was known for having furthered the Kremlin's interests across Africa, in Syria and in eastern Ukraine. When the Russo-Ukrainian war broke out, Prigozhin's forces were at the forefront and became the only pro-Russian forces in the country operating with any semblance of effectiveness after the rest of the Russian military got bogged down. This led Prigozhin to brand nearly the entire Russian military brass as [[GeneralFailure General Failures]], launching a months-long, drawn-out and very public spat with them. Accusing Defence Minister Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimov of driving Russia to a total military defeat in Ukraine (and suggesting that this, in turn, would lead to wholesale collapse of Russia), Prigozhin mobilised his forces to Moscow in a bid to remove them. However, his forces stood down shortly afterwards, and [[ShaggyDogStory Prigozhin himself was killed]] in a suspected assassination two months later. Obituaries posted after his death highlight the difficulty Russians had in canonising him, praising his "patriotic" actions while contending with the fact that he brought Russia closer to a civil war than any other figure in recent history.
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* While August Best, from TV Movie ''Film/PanicInTheCity'', may be employed by the Soviets, he is not above carrying out his own vicious agenda to nuke LA.
* The 1989 TV movie ''Red King, White Knight'' has the KGB hiring a foreign terrorist to kill Premier Gorbachev to stop his policy of perestroika.
* ''Series/EnemyWithin'' focuses on FBI's efforts to stop a Russian terrorist named Vassily Tal, who is very good at subverting their efforts by turning people or using blackmail. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that Tal was a case of CreateYourOwnVillain. After he left Russian intelligence to strike out on his own, he was contacted by Americans and offered to work for them in exchange for a safe passage for him and his two brothers to the US. Instead, he was betrayed and his brothers were killed in an airstrike.]]

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'':

* A few ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' bad guys.
* ''Series/{{Jake20}}'' used this.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' uses this from time to time, particularly when [[PresidentEvil Charles Logan]] shows up.
** [[spoiler:Before subverting it in the final season]].
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' has these ''everywhere.''
** As did parent series ''Series/{{JAG}}''. Most notable example is submarine captain Mikhail Yerastov, hired by Al-Qaeda in season 7, who wants to avenge his dead [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] wife who was killed by the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}.
* ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' has a very interesting variant in its tenth and final season. In this case, the renegades' endgame is [[spoiler:to trick Britain into attacking a Russian jetliner bound for London, [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain thus stopping a proposed Partnership and driving the two nations into war]] while simultaneously opening the way for the Ultranationalist Party to seize power in the Kremlin]].

* ''Series/TheEnemyWithin'' focuses on FBI's efforts to stop a Russian terrorist named Vassily Tal, who is very good at subverting their efforts by turning people or using blackmail. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that Tal was a case of CreateYourOwnVillain. After he left Russian intelligence to strike out on his own, he was contacted by Americans and offered to work for them in exchange for a safe passage for him and his two brothers to the US. Instead, he was betrayed and his brothers were killed in an airstrike.]]

* Colonel Volgin in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', an interesting example as the Soviet Union is still around during ''[=MGS3=]''.

-->'''Ocelot:''' 20th century Russia had its share of problems, but at least they had an ideology. Russia today has ''nothing''!\\

* Batman once fought the "[=NKVDemon=]", a Russian SuperSoldier, when he tried killing the new Soviet leadership, starting from the bottom and going right up to Gorbachev.
** And a few years before that, the [=KGBeast=] went against his government orders to kill ten political targets, the last one being Ronald Reagan. He was also the [=NKVDemon=]'s mentor.

* General Nikolai Alexandrovich Zakharov from ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX, is a low-key example. Its unlikely he'd ever openly move against the Russian government, but he despises The New Russia and its government, considering them traitors who threw away the sacrifices made for the Soviet Union and whored out the country for profit.

* "The Crossing Line", an old ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' storyline by Fabian Nicieza, features a group of Soviet soldiers who have decided that starting a global nuclear war would be, uh, good for the economy. Not unreasonably, the Soviet government disagrees, and the official Soviet supers team up with the Avengers and ComicBook/AlphaFlight to take them down.

* In ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'', [[spoiler:General Kong Feirong]] and his faction of the [[spoiler:[[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport PLA]]]] provide another [[spoiler:Chinese]] example. ''Chaos Theory'' gives us [[spoiler: a ''Japanese'' example in the form of Admiral Otomo and his ISDF faction.]]

* A Chinese variant in ComicBook/IronMan villain the Mandarin, at least in his earliest appearances. While he lived in and occasionally helped Red China, it was made clear from his debut that he thinks himself above both Beijing ''and'' Washington, and he routinely humiliates the PLA officials sent to negotiate with him.

** Averted in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', which is the only James Bond movie in which his enemy is a communist agent acting with the blessing of his government.

* Colonel Volgin in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', an interesting example as the Soviet Union is still around during [=MGS3=].
** Sergei and his daughter in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' seek to make Russia a superpower once again, while Ocelot just [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder pretends to be affiliated with them]]. Though he does seem pretty disgusted with the state of post-Soviet Russia.