Russian Loyalists/Russian Government
Meanwhile, by Modern Warfare 3, after a significant war with the United States, the Ultranationalist government had began to soften. The moderate Ultranationalist government controlled by President Boris Vorshevsky had split with Makarov's fanatical Inner Circle, and attempted to seek peace with the west. Unfortunately, Makarov is not going to let that happen.
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Russian Loyalists
Nikolai
Nikolai
"Da - I know a place."
Russian informant and mercenary who works with Price and Soap. Appears in the first Modern Warfare game as a spy inside the Ultranationalist camp. By the events of the second game, he is a support asset for Task Force 141, who is frequently called in as for emergency extractions, but the third game reveals that he is in command of a resistance force made up of former Loyalist soldiers dedicated to stopping Makarov.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Look at his picture. Now look at him in MW2 Remastered.
May double as an Age Lift. - Ascended Extra: In the first game, he was a minor character who was central to a rescue and Escort Mission, who provides a bit of intel on where to find al-Asad. By the later games, he takes on a much bigger role, becoming part of Price's group of trusted associates.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Plays the part no fewer than three times in the second game.
- Every level where the action is focused on Price, Nikolai is this, sometimes twice.
- Captain Obvious: In Modern Warfare 2. It is not appreciated either time.
- In The Hornet's NestNikolai: My friend, from up here, it looks like the whole village is trying to kill you!
Captain MacTavish: Tell me something I don't know! Just get ready to pick us up! - In The Enemy of My EnemyNikolai: [witnessing the massive three-way fight between Task-Force 141, Makarov's men, and Shadow Company] Price, I am approaching the boneyard. I see you do not have situation under control. Very unsafe to land. It looks like when I was in Afghanistan with the Soviets!
Captain Price: Nikolai! Just shut up and land the bloody plane! We're on our way!
- In The Hornet's Nest
- Escort Mission: Not as bad as usual, as in "Hunted", he is invincible as the main NPCs tend to be and he carries an AKS-74U.
- La Résistance: Fought in Afghanistan, then heads up a force of Russian Loyalists that oppose the Ultranationalists. Since overthrowing the Ultranationalist-controlled government is a lost cause, he instead focuses his efforts on the ones are far worse.
- Nice Guy: Nikolai is a loyal friend to Price and Soap.
- Not So Stoic: When he is trying to extract Soap and Price from the airplane graveyard in Afghanistan, a missile nearly downs him, and he unleashes a massive Cluster F-Bomb in Russian, breaking his usual stoic self.
- The Mole: His role in the first game. Unfortunately, he's discovered by the Ultranationalists and is captured and tortured for information, leading to Price, Gaz, Soap, and Kamarov leading a rescue mission to save him.
- The Stoic: Even when his chopper is getting perforated by the local militia in Rio de Janerio, he stays relatively calm, if a little worried.
- True Companions: Part of a three-man one between Soap, Price, and himself.
- Undying Loyalty: During the Second Russian Civil War, Price and Soap went deep behind enemy lines to walk him out of Hell. Five years later, he returned the favor, no less than five times.
- Vocal Dissonance: Due to his Adaptational Attractiveness and possible Age Lift described above, his gruff accent may not exactly fit him anymore.
Kamarov
Sergeant Kamarov
"Welcome to the new Russia, Captain Price."
Voiced by: Mark Ivanir (English)note
Leader of a Russian Loyalist Spetznaz squad, and an old acquaintance of Captain Price.
- Back for the Dead: Appears in 3 after being absent in 2, only to be killed by Makarov in his second appearance in the former.
- Big Damn Heroes: Climax of the first Modern Warfare. About two minutes too late, though.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: His brief second appearance has him strapped to a chair surrounded by explosive charges, and is killed when Makarov detonates those charges.
- The Load: Both this and Skewed Priorities - He really gets in the way of the SAS in his first appearance, to the point where Gaz holds him over a ledge and threatens to drop him if he won't stop it. They all get along much better in his next 3 appearances, though Soap lampshades this snarking that he forgot to switch the radio on.
- La Résistance: Leader of the Prague resistance forces against Ultranationalist occupation.
- Manly Tears: "You're going to be all right, my friend!"
- Noodle Incident: What happened with him in Beruit, anyway?
- The Mole: Infiltrates Makarov's inner circle to help Price in Modern Warfare 3. Unfortunately, Makarov already knew he was a mole working against him and eventually kills him with Yuri, Soap, and Price all watching.
Yuri
Yuri
"I was a soldier of Russia, not a taker of innocent lives."
Voiced by: Tony Curran (English)note
Former Spetsnaz who thoroughly hates Makarov and his organization, and serves as the player character for the Task Force 141 missions in Modern Warfare 3.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's hard to say if Nikolai knew of Yuri's past as an ex-Ultranationalist and ex-Inner Circle member.
- A-Team Firing: He comes in at the nick of time to shoot Makarov before Makarov can shoot and kill Price, but he only hits Makarov non-incapacitatingly in the shoulder with his pistol before missing three other shots against him despite being three feet away from the collapsed Makarov. Then again it would seem rather justified considering he was direly injured and firing his pistol one-handed due to holding his injuries.
- The Atoner: He's not proud of his past as one of Makarov's closest allies, to say the least.
- Been There, Shaped History: He was there when Zakhaev got his arm shot off, when the nuke was set off in al-Asad's capital, and would have been the sixth man in Makarov's team during the attack on the airport. To correct the continuity gaps created by the later games, the remastered versions of the first two campaigns gives him retroactive cameos. In the original game's remaster, he is accompanying Zhakaev and Makarov to the meeting in "One Shot, One Kill". In the remastered campaign of 2, his unconscious body is at the security checkpoint in Zhakaev International Airport, which is where he was shown to have collapsed in the flashback of 3. To see it you need to go through most of the airport then run back to the security checkpoint before going outside. In both instances shooting him will trigger a game over.
- Big Damn Heroes: He storms the roof and shoots Makarov just in time to prevent him from executing Price. He gets killed for it, but gives Price the opening he needs.
- Boom, Headshot!: Makarov puts an end to Yuri's interruption of Price's impromptu execution by shooting him through the forehead after putting a bullet in each of his shoulders first.
- Cold Sniper: At times.
- Color-Coded Eyes: Considering how much detail the designers give characters, the gray color choice was likely on purpose. Yuri's entire color scheme is gray, a neutral colornote . He was with Task Force 141 only to get revenge on Makarov and never tries to gain Price's favor, but he isn't a villain either. He also starts out "young and patriotic".
- Defector from Decadence: Defected from the Ultranationalists when he saw how increasingly insane Makarov has become. Gets shot in the gut for his trouble, and the rest of his story is about this.
- Determinator: Getting shot in the stomach by Makarov doesn't stop him from grabbing a gun and trying to stop the massacre at the airport.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- In Modern Warfare Remastered, he can be seen during the arms deal in "One Shot, One Kill". Shooting him will cause a game over.
- He reappears in Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered, where he can be seen laying down injured behind Makarov's group during the airport massacre. Much like in Modern Warfare Remastered, killing him will also result in a game over.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Yuri is an Ex-Spetsnaz soldier who was recruited into Task Force 141 during the third installment.
- Heel–Face Turn: During "No Russian." After seeing Makarov nuke the capital of Al-Asad's country, he started to question the Ultranationalist cause, and decided Makarov has gone too far in his vision for a new Russia.
- La Résistance: He is one of the commanders of the Loyalists that oppose the Ultranationalists.
- Heroic Mime: Averted. He speaks in the cut scenes while detailing Makarov's plans, and also speaks in-mission explaining his former role with Makarov and the Ultranationalists.
- Made of Iron
- He is the only character in the series to survive getting shot in the stomach with a Desert Eagle.
- In "Dust To Dust" he is impaled on a spike of iron rebar when he tells Price to go after Makarov. After Price crashes Makarov's helicopter, Yuri comes charging in to save the day, pistol blazing, and Makarov has to shoot him three more times to actually put him down...though he apparently wasn't Made of Iron enough to keep his accuracy shooting at Makarov with a pistol one-handed from three feet away.
- Never Hurt an Innocent: Why he quit the Ultranationalists.
- Not What I Signed on For: He betrayed Makarov because he stopped being a soldier fighting for a worthy cause and instead became a psychotic monster.
- Only Sane Man: Was the only member of Makarov's Inner Circle to realize what a monster Makarov had become.
- Redemption Equals Death: Yuri's turning on Makarov lead to him being shot by Makarov twice - first at the airport right before the massacre, and much later when he's saving Price from being shot by Makarov. He barely survives his first shooting, but isn't so lucky the second time around.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Being a former member of a terrorist group will make it hard for your allies to trust you, especially when that's found out. It doesn't matter that Yuri turned on Makarov; he still ultimately did nothing when Makarov nuked Al-Asad's capital, and while he's out for revenge against Makarov, who's to say he still isn't a terrorist at heart?
- Remember the New Guy?: Despite being a friend of Makarov's before his Heel–Face Turn, we don't learn about Yuri until 3.
- The Reveal: Yuri is revealed to be an ex-Ultranationalist and former member of Makarov's inner circle, until his opposition to Makarov's increasing insanity led to his former boss shooting him and leaving him for dead.
- Revenge: One of his driving motivations for opposing Makarov; it is stated that he is the one man in the world who hates Makarov even more than Price does.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Yuri wants Makarov dead. That's all that motivates him by the point in the story that he joins Price's group. It eventually culminates in the two-man assault on the Oasis Hotel in Juggernaut armor.
- Russian Guy Suffers Most: Out of all of the series' protagonists, he probably suffers the most beatings across a single game, including getting dumped off a cliff into a river, shot repeatedly in the stomach, impaled by a piece of rebar, knocked senseless in the mining complex, thrown down a flight of stairs by Price and eventually getting shot in the head/killed by Makarov.
- The Runt at the End: The Loyalists are, as their name states, loyal to pre-Ultranationalist Russia. Yuri remained an Ultranationalist until "No Russian", after which he got recruited by Nikolai.
- Token Good Teammate: Of Makarov's Inner Circle, he was the only one to have a soul, too much to be considered a terrorist.
- True Companions: Averted: Of all of the Modern Warfare characters who work with Price, Yuri is distinct in that he never truly ingratiates himself with Price, Nikolai, or Soap. When Price learns that Yuri was once one of Makarov's trusted lieutenants, he makes it clear afterwards that he doesn't care if Yuri lives or dies, and that Yuri has to "keep up or be left behind". Price does eventually warm to Yuri, but never to the same degree as he did to Soap, Nikolai, MacMillian, Sandman, Griggs, or Gaz. Then again, Yuri's only with them for the sake of revenge on Makarov in the first place...
- Walking Spoiler: He's more than just a generic Player Character, being integral to some of the trilogy's iconic moments.
- We Used to Be Friends: He knew some of the Ultranationalists he's now fighting against back in the day. Specifically the days where he was one himself. He was Makarov's closest friend and Zakhaev's pupil.
Russian Government
Boris Vorshevsky
Boris Vorshevsky
"Gentlemen, we have only two choices: peace or war. Life or death. For the sake of our children, we must seek peace with the West."
Voiced by: David Anthony Pizzuto (English)note
President of Russia and leader of the mainstream Ultranationalists after the civil war. He plans to negotiate for a peace treaty and end the Russo-American war.
- Ambiguously Evil: All of his screentime paints him as a Reasonable Authority Figure who wants to end the fighting and abhors violence in general. However, he was also President when Russia invaded the U.S. and went out of its way to murder civilians.
- Ascended Extra: Mentioned only in newspaper articles in Makarov's safehouse during Modern Warfare 2, he becomes a central character in 3 due to him possessing the knowledge of Russia's nuclear launch codes.
- Everyone Has Standards: He may have had an anti-Western stance prior to the third installment, but he considers Makarov and his followers terrorist thugs.
- I Have Your Wife: Makarov kidnaps his daughter to get him to give up the nuclear launch codes.
- Living Macguffin: To Makarov, who needs him alive due to him possessing the Russian nuclear launch codes. When Price and Yuri find out about this late in 3, he also becomes central to both Task Force 141 and Delta Force.
- Not What I Signed Up For: More like having different interpretations of Zakhaev's vision. Vorshevsky was part of the Ultranationalist movement cultivated by Imran Zakhaev, but upon ascending to the presidency with the blessing of Russia's population strove to make his party a legitimate force for peace, being loyal to Zakhaev's ideology except for the use of violent extremism, even having the balls to reject Makarov and to expel him and his followers from the movement completely. Naturally, Makarov did not take this lying down, and decided that Vorshevsky was a threat to his ultimate vision for Ultranationalist Russia.
- Our Presidents Are Different: President Target.
- Papa Wolf: To his daughter Alena. Makarov attempts to exploit this to force his hand on the nuclear codes.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He decides to pursue peace so more Russians won't die. One wonders how much control he has over the Russian military, given that they launched the massive invasion of Europe even though he wanted peace.
- It should be noted that several members of his staff, and possibly his Cabinet, were with him on his plane. They were presumably loyal to him, but were all killed when Makarov's men attacked it.
- In general he is also this, distancing himself from the radical message that Makarov subscribes to.
- You're Insane!: Tells Makarov outright that he's insane as he knows full well that Makarov wants the Russian nuclear launch codes, which in a maniac like Makarov's hands would kickstart World War III as Makarov would annihilate the US, UK, and anyone else that stood in his way for the Ultranationalist Russia Makarov envisions.
Alena Vorshevsky
Alena Vorshevsky
Voiced by: Anna Graves (English)note
The daughter of President Vorshevsky.
- Bridal Carry: She gets this briefly from Price When she is rescued in "Down the Rabbit Hole".
- Chekhov's Gunman: She is introduced in "Turbulence", but disappears from the plot after being rescued by the FSO. She becomes much more important when Makarov finds her location and Delta Force is tasked with rescuing her in the ruins of Berlin.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: She seems to have gone through this at least to a minor degree when you find her in the diamond mine
- Damsel in Distress: Well, yeah. But you have to admit, you'd be pretty scared too if the Ultranationalists were after you.
- I Have Your Wife: The reason why the Ultranationalists keep trying to kidnap her is so they can coerce President Vorshevsky into giving up the launch codes.
- Living Macguffin: Makarov wants her so she can be used to force President Vorshevsky to give him the launch codes to the Russian nuclear arsenal. Delta Force and Task Force 141 want her so that doesn't happen.
Andrei Harkov
Andrei Harkov
An FSO (equivalent of American Secret Service) agent, in charge of President Vorshevsky's security.
- Ambiguous Situation: Is he really the Player Character in the Spec Ops mission to save Alena? Or is it just some random FSO agent?
- Badass in a Nice Suit: It's a given as he is Vorshevsky's bodyguard and all.
- Determinator: He doesn't stop trying to protect the President until he's completely dead.
- The Faceless: The one image that shows him in a cutscene is scratched out completely. Rest of the time, we're playing him in first-person.
- The Hero Dies: Following the tradition of Paul Jackson and Joseph Allen, he's the first playable character in the third installment to apparently die, getting shot by Makarov at the end of his first mission. He may have survived, considering he seems to be the Player Character in a Special Ops mission to rescue Alena.
- Made of Iron:
- He gets knocked down by a breached door and somehow manages to survive a very violent plane crash. It takes a point-blank shot from a .50AE Desert Eagle to drop him, then once more before he grabs his gun.
- And if one of the missions in Mission Mode is canonical, then he somehow survives that and goes out of his way to save the President's daughter.
- The Mole: During the loading screen for Turbulence, a picture with his name on it says "Inside Man?" It ultimately amounts to nothing, as Makarov's men assault the aircraft with seemingly no insiders of their own among the FSO contingent onboard.
- Player Character: For a single mission, "Turbulence", and possibly in one of the Special Ops missions.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Unlike Jackson and Allen, he is shot by Makarov in the same mission he was introduced in and left behind, giving him little time for development. Subverted if you believe that he’s the player character in one of the Spec Ops missions, and somehow survived getting shot point-blank and is now saving the president’s daughter.
Leonid Pudovkin
Commander Leonid Pudovkin
Voiced by: Boris Kievsky (English)note
Harkov's immediate superior, and commander of the FSO unit assigned to protect President Vorshevsky on his flight to Hamburg.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Like Harkov, he wears a suit at all times, although his is not as flashy.
- Boom, Headshot!: Makarov finishes him off with a shot to the head just as he tries to grab his pistol.
- Determinator: Like Harkov, he still tries to protect the President even after being wounded. And this includes being shot by Makarov. It takes the latter firing a second shot to his head for him to finally be put down.
- Killed Off for Real: He's killed when Makarov and his men catch them completely by surprise late in "Turbulence".
- Made of Iron: Like Harkov, he manages to survive a plane crash mostly unscathed, and even survives getting shot point blank in the chest. It takes a headshot for him to finally die.
