Vladimir Vladimirovich Nikov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nikov is a Russian mercenary who has acted as bodyguard for renowned terrorist Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub.
== Early Life and Afghanistan ==
Vlad was born on September 16th 1980 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He got involved in the Russian mafia as an enforcer when he was 15, but left when he turned 18 to join the Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) as a paratrooper. Vlad was married in 2000, having a daughter in 2002 and a son in 2003, but was divorced in 2005. He lost custody of his children.
=== Military Career ===
Vlad fought in the Second Chechen War during both the major combat and the insurgency phase. When he was just 19 years old, he fought in the infamous Battle for Height 776, where out of a force of around 90 men, he was one of only 6 or 7 survivors. All of his commanding officers were killed in the heavy fighting and he received the Order of Courage for taking part in the battle. During the insurgency phase, Vlad would learn much about unconventional warfare which would come in handy later.
File:Vdv.jpg|Vlad in Chechnya in 1999
In 2005, Vlad joined the 25th Special Purpose Regiment of the Spetsnaz GRU and would continue operations in Chechnya. He would also be involved in the Russo-Georgian War and fight against the Insurgency in the North Caucasus. In 2009 he would be transferred to Russia's highest tier special forces unit, the FSB's Alpha Group.
File:Fsb alpha group.jpg|Vlad (centre) during a training exercise in 2009
File:Alpha group.jpg|Vlad (centre) meeting Vladimir Putin in 2011
Vlad left the Russian Armed Forces in early 2014, just before the Annexation of Crimea. He had become disillusioned with his government due to all of the terrible things they made him do over the years, but he did not leave to pursue a path of virtue as he mainly sought to improve his own lot. He would go on to join a mercenary company with operations in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban. He became Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub's bodyguard in late 2014.
=== Afghanistan ===
While in Afghanistan, Nikov mostly fought against local security forces, but also encountered American soldiers, including special forces. He trained local insurgent forces and is thought to be responsible for the deaths of civilians and prisoners, though there is no evidence of this. He has been discriminated against for being Russian by Insurgent forces, including by Al-Yacoub himself, though he defends Nikov when others do it. Nikov is known to be strongly opposed to the insurgents he fights with on a moral level as he has no respect for Islam (especially as fought against Islamic terrorists throughout his time in the military), but he was willing to fight with them as he despises the West more, and he has profited greatly from the conflict. For his actions in the mafia and as a mercenary, Nikov was declared a criminal by the Russian government, preventing him from returning home. 
In Afghanistan, Vlad would meet Ahmed Ali, a young member of the Taliban who was initially assigned as his guide, but would go on to become Vlad's right hand man. This was because Ahmed was the only Afghan Vlad could relate to since he wasn't a radical Islamist and enjoyed foreign culture. Vlad also imagined that his son would be something like Ahmed. 
==== Betrayal and independent mercenary group ====
In 2018, Ahmed would be killed by his fellow Taliban members. Those responsible for this plot included Ahmed's own brothers and even his father. When Vlad found out about this, he went berserk. He went on a rampage, killing all of the Taliban members who could be connected to Ahmed's death. No one expected this because it was assumed Vlad was an emotionless mercenary and weak of character, so they were caught completely off guard and had made no efforts to hide their conspiracy making it easy for Vlad to track them down. It also helped that Vlad had special forces training and years of combat experience. 
After this, Vlad didn't have many allies in Afghanistan (only a couple of Russian mercenaries who were also resentful of the Taliban and decided to defect), but he did have a plan. Vlad would start his own mercenary group and capitalise on the instability of Afghanistan to become strong, and he had a way to get set up. 
Before betraying the Taliban, Vlad raided the garrison of some IS forces and found out that they had a plan to raid a bank in Jordan to steal a large amount of money in precious metal, gems and bonds. The plan would likely have failed as it was amateurishly put together, but the information was good and a more competent force could probably do it, and so Vlad knew how to get his start-up cash. 
To do this heist, Vlad would enlist the help of 2 of his fellow mercenaries in Afghanistan, as well as 5 old Spetsnaz buddies and a friend of his father associated with the mafia who worked in international banking. They were even able to get their hands on a Cold War era APC to use in the heist. The group would go through with the plan in 2019 and be successful, stealing an unknown amount, but it is believed to be in the hundreds of millions. It was a pyrrhic victory though as multiple members would be killed in the process. Additionally, when the remaining members of the team met up with the banker, one of the mercenaries would kill the banker as he believed he didn't deserve his cut of the take, but then be killed himself. In the end, only 3 members of the 9 man team survived, including Vlad. This did have the beneficial side effect of Vlad not having to split as much money (especially since the banker expected a large cut on behalf of the mafia), but it also permanently ruined his relationship with the mafia, meaning only a few members would still be willing to help him. 
After this event, Vlad would immediately start to work on setting up his mercenary organisation, which recruited many former soldiers mostly from Eastern European countries and basically operate as an independent army, only rarely allying itself with other states and instead causing chaos in Afghanistan as well as other unstable countries in Africa, Asia and South America, with the chief aim of making profit by exploiting wars for to steal poorly protected resources like arms and drugs and then trade them on a black market. This organisation would come to be known as 'Vlad's lads'. Their black uniforms were inspired by Alpha Group uniforms, as Vlad wanted his men to appear as legitimate professional government operatives. 
In 2021, the RSM left Afghanistan and Vlad's organisation acquired American equipment that was left behind and used it to continue his operation, though it would become much harder as the Taliban enhanced its control of Afghanistan. His father also came to the country to support him and possibly rehabilitate him with the mafia, but they had disagreements over the mafia as Vlad felt that he owed them nothing especially after they abandoned him, but his father was still a loyal member. Not long after this his father died of a stroke. 
== Ukraine War and time in America ==
Shortly after the death of his father, Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, contacted Vladimir and offered him a job. Vlad and his company would fight in the upcoming invasion of Ukraine, and act as a personal army for Shoigu. Members of Vlad's army would join this effort from all over the world, almost like a modern crusade. They were to carry out secret missions that could never be connected to Shoigu, mostly against to the Wagner Group, a Russian PMC led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an enemy of Shoigu. Vlad accepted this mission and would fight in the war, as he would be rewarded with a pardon for all of his crimes on top of regular payment, and even protection from the Russian Mafia. Vlad hoped that this would be his opportunity to find his children and make amends for his crimes as seeing his father again made him regretful of his failure to be a father to his children.
While in Ukraine, Vlad would meet his son, who was a helicopter pilot in the Russian military. Here he would find out that his ex-wife was killed by the Russian mafia in an attack, and that his daughter had left Russia and moved to California to get an education, she had no intention of returning and they had lost contact once the war started. His son stated that he would never forgive Vlad's actions and that he intended on joining the police once the war was over.
In 2023, Vlad's group would be tasked with with staging a rebellion and making it appear as though the Wagner Group was responsible. Unfortunately, in the fighting that was caused by this, a helicopter piloted by Vlad's son was shot down and he was killed. This whole situation though, was actually a set up planned by Shoigu and Prigozhin who had come to an agreement in secret and needed to tie up the loose end of Vlad's organisation. After this, Vlad's men were killed in battles, captured or were scattered. Luckily, Vlad was able to use one of his last old mafia contacts to escape the country, but he could never go back to Russia again. Ironically Prigozhin was being betrayed in a double bluff as Shoigu was scheming so that he could kill two birds with one stone. Both Vlad's Lads and Wagner PMC were implicated in the rebellion, and Vlad's Lads were totally explled from the country. 
=== America ===
By this point, Vlad only had one hope to make his life worth living - his daughter. He would travel to California to try and establish contact with her, though this would prove difficult as she had changed her name. Vlad was almost alone, had no money, had no idea how to integrate himself into regular society, and had no leads to his daughter beyond the fact that she is a student in California, or at least had been at one point. Vlad ended up working towards his goal the only way he knew how - with violence.
Vlad became a hitman, doing jobs for multiple crime organisations and investing his resources into searching for his daughter, but the Russian mafia knew he was in America and has made multiple attempts on his life which have so far failed. Unfortunately his activities could actually be putting his daughter in danger, and so he will have to be careful not to lose the only person he has left. He isn't going to be alone though, as he has help from an old contact he made from his time as arms dealer, Jim Miller Jr.
== Trivia ==
* Vlad's favourite bands are Kino and Lyube - his favourite songs are Солдат, Хочу перемен and Спокойная ночь
Category:Characters
Category:Afghanistan