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Brigada
Alexander "Sasha Bely" Nikolaevich Belov
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Sasha gets dragged into the criminal underworld by circumstances and wants nothing more than to legalize the business he acquired, break it off with organised crime and secure a good life for his family.
- Can't Stay Normal: Neither his friends nor his enemies would have it, plus he often falls into his old habits, especially if it's about getting revenge.
- Everyone Has Standards: He may be a ruthless, bloodthirsty gangster, but Sasha would do his best to avoid harming innocents. He's also against business decisions if they would ruin the lives of Russians, such as allowing cocaine trade in Moscow (he opted for smuggling it to Europe instead) or selling weapons to Chechen rebels who would kill Russian soldiers (he arranged a deal to get botched.).
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine. Vivacious, strong, charismatic, ambitious and just the right blend of passion and atoicism.
- Honor Among Thieves: He relies on others' sense of honor reflecting his own by insisting that he clean up his own messes instead of sending anyone else to do his dirty work. It does work a few times because it gives his adversaries to understand that he answers for his own words and actions and that earns their respect.
- The Leader: The natural leader of the four as well as any other group he winds up in. His qualities as such are noted by several people, including FSB.
- The Mafiya: Zigzagged. He has never been to prison and isn't part of any typical Russian mafia organisation, but his own group rises to power quickly and functions on his own. The old mafia offers to initiate him in their ranks at some point, but he refuses because he's trying to go legal.
- Revenge: When someone tries to harm Sasha's family or friends, he is without mercy, ordering assassinations immediately.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Kaverin has all his friends killed and tries to kill him as well, Sasha fakes his own death, then ambushes Kaverin and his people and guns them all down.
- Screw the Rules, They Broke Them First!: When he and Kaverin are up against each other in a pre-election debate, the latter brings up Sasha's past criminal activities. Sasha just shrugs that, in the lawless chaos of 90s Russia, everyone has broken the law.
Viktor "Pchyola" Pavlovich Pchyolkin
- The Dutiful Son: He cares deeply about his parents and would always do his best to show them respect. When he's about to go to Berlin, his father asks him to take a flower from Moscow to the place innBerlin he got wounded in WWII. Vitya was about to do that if it wasn't for the assassination attempt on Sasha, Valera and Kosmos, for which he becomes a prime suspect.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric. Often comes up with daring plans, aggressive in life as well as in business, very cunning and sharp.
- Greed: Almost a Fatal Flaw. While Sasha wants to get out of crime, Pcholkin wants to earn more and more profits and doesn't mind getting his hands dirty with drugs or arms trade even if it's going to hurt Russian people, something that wouldn't sit well with Sasha.
- Punny Name: His last name sounds like "bee", which becomes his nickname. At one point, Kosmos just draws a bee when accusing Pchola of betrayal.
- The Smart Guy: He's the one that comes up with clever plans.
- The Starscream: He appears to go that way after Sasha cancels the Brigada's participation in the Chechen arms trade and tries to push his plans to work with Germans, trading oil. This behavior drives a rift between him and the rest and when directly after this disagreement the car gets blown up where all of them but him were driving, everyone believes he's the traitor. It was someone else entirely. While Pcholkin often disagreed with his friends, he was just as loyal as any of them were.
Kosmos "Kos" Yurievich Holmogorov
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. Emotional, very loyal, kind.
- Hookers and Blow: He succumbs to cocaine addiction and prostitutes halfway through the story, but gets a rude awakening.
- Idle Rich: He starts out as a "major", a Russian term for a Spoiled Brat of the city elite who doesn't need to work because his parents are supporting him.
- I Just Want to Be Special: He reveals to Sasha that he joined a criminal gang just to look cool in the anti-intellectual, brutal Perestroika years. That's why he carried a gun around and that kickstarted everything when he shot Mukha in the back with the gun.
- The McCoy: He's the emotional one of the group
Valeriy "Fil" Konstantinovich Filatov
- The Big Guy: He's the strong, silent type, a boxer turned stuntman. His personality reflects that - he's the most emotionally stable and the most loyal to Sasha, but also the least involved with criminal activities (he still has a career as a stuntman).
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic. Calm, stoic, slow to anger and the first to step up and defuse the tension.
- The Stoic: Out of the four, he's the one with the calmest composure, even more than Sasha who despite his Nerves of Steel can still act rashly.
Family members
Tatyana Belova
Sasha's mother.- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: No matter how deeply Sasha gets involved in criminal activities, he loves his mother dearly.
Olga "Olya" Belova (nèe Surikova)
A girl living in the summer house opposite to Sasha's hideout in 1989 whom he falls in love with. The two get married.Ivan Aleksandrovich Belov
Sasha and Olya's son.Yuriy Holmogorov
Kosmos' father, an astrophysics professor.- Team Dad: He helps the boys whenever he can and even later on when he can't do anything, he continues offering support.
Pcholkin's parents
- The Stoic: Typical for Russian men, Pcholkin's father is choking up in grief at his son's funeral and only says to his wife "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away".
Belov's friends and associates
Farkhad "Fara" Dzhurayev
Sasha's army buddy. He turns to be the successor of a powerful Tajik crime family.- Barbaric Longhair: Central Asians are thought of as "savage" in Russia and he wears his hair chest-length.
- Warrior Poet: He loves to quote Persian poetry. In general, his upbringing as an upper class Proud Warrior Race Guy dictates that he's both sophisticated and quite belligerent.
Belov's enemies
Vladimir Evgenievich Kaverin
A former police investigator in Moscow who gets into a grudge with Belov.- Beady-Eyed Loser: Kaverin has small, darting eyes and always has a dishonest look on his face. He's also a loser with a raging inferiority complex.
- Deal with the Devil: He's the devil in one with Max. As seen in this deleted scene
:Kaverin: Look at the knife. A murder weapon. So much blood on it. I'll remove you from the investigation. You won't be executed by a firing squad in a cramped prison hallway. I won't betray you to the Chechens. You won't be torn to pieces with a dull, rusty saw. You owe me everything. For many long years, I will forget about what I did for you. Live as you used to - no memories, no gratitude. But one day I'll appear and ask of you one thing - "Extinguish his face." And you will do that, whatever it may cost you. - Dirty Cop: A really, really dirty one. First, his cousin is something of a criminal heavyweight and Volodya starts hanging out with his ilk. Then he starts using information to hold criminals, even highly deadly ones like Max in his pocket. Then he becomes a full blown crime lord heading a "security firm"... after ousting his openly criminal associate from whom he steals the firm.
- Evil Cripple: He loses his right hand in Chechnya and later has an advanced prosthetic installed. He loves to cover it in a black glove and clench it. In the novelization, the section where he finally get the upper hand over Belov is titled "The Black Hand".
- It's Personal: He starts off on the wrong foot with Belov when the latter has a fight with his cousin, Fly, over a girl. Then when Fly gets killed, Kaverin blames Belov and pins it on him. But it gets really personal a bit later on when, trying to finally put Belov in jail with a murder he did commit (of a failed assassin sent by Kaverin), he gets fired because the higher ups are protecting Belov, Kaverin vows to destroy him.
- Leitmotif: His theme, ''The Shadow'', is a dark string instrument piece.
- Narcissist: The man hates Belov because he believes he should be the one who's a successful crime leader. He also does things like hang a portrait of himself drawn as a Russian emperor in his home.
- 0% Approval Rating: Everyone hates Kaverin because of his repulsive, petty and toxic personality. His co-workers, his bosses (including Vvedensky), his criminal associates and of course his enemies. When he runs for a member of the State Duma against Belov, even Kaverin's own wife votes against him and when he loses, all his staff leaves his office immediately, abandoning him completely alone.
Russian state and secret services
Colonel Igor Leonidovich Vvedensky
A colonel from FSB (the Federal Security Service) who's tasked with monitoring, recruiting or eliminating (whichever his higher-ups deem necessary for the moment) criminal groups in Moscow such as those of Belov and Kaverin.
- Big Brother Is Watching You: Par for the course, he always employs surveillance against everyone else and even has them spy on each other for him at times.
- Deal with the Devil: He offers one to Belov early on, saying he's "from the Ministry of Good Deeds". Belov of course knows better than to just take it and makes sure he can never get cornered by Vvedensky into accepting any deal he might regret.
- Playing Both Sides: He supports both Belov and Kaverin when it suits him (and the state), playing them against each other. He recruited the latter specifically to balance out the former, as he stated in his report.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He hates having to work with the likes of Belov and Kaverin, especially because backstabbing is guaranteed. However at least he respects the former, while the latter invokes disgust in him.
- Worthy Opponent: Regards Belov as such for his integrity.
Viktor Petrovich Zorin
A high-ranking Russian politician with whom Sasha runs the "Renovations Fund". Civilians
