Aleksandr Kolesnikov

## Aleksandr D. "Alek" Kolesnikov

Captain 1st rank **Aleksandr Dmitry Kolesnikov** (Russian: **Александр Дмитрий Колесников**), sometimes informally known as "**Alek**", is a character that appears somewhat regularly in the *Foxtrot: Foxes in Arms* series. He is an arctic fox, or "polar fox" where he grew up, who was born in Russia and currently serves as a surface warfare officer in the Russian Navy. Alek gained somewhat of a reputation for being one of the most effective commanders in the current times, and is know for his no-nonsense attitude but effective in getting his job done. In Alek's mind, so long as it's the best for his country, then he will do it without question.

## Physical Description

Alek is an arctic fox who stands at roughly 5 feet 10 1/4 inches (1.78 meters) tall excluding ears and has an overall average build for most males. As a winter-bred arctic fox, he has mostly white fur covering his body.

As far as attire is concerned, Alek is most commonly seen wearing a black service dress uniform akin to the Russian Navy, including the long-sleeve shirt/jacket, pants and boots.

## Backstory

Alek was born on April 10th, 1988, to a modest family on the outskirts of Smolensk, the administrative center of what is now Smolensk Oblast in Russia. Even back in these days, he is said to have a fairly decent childhood, though by his teenage years, developed a bit of a temper for which he's gotten help for. He has gotten fairly good marks in school, and is noted as taking particular interest in learning the English language, which he is now amazingly fluent in.

By the time he was 18, he was conscripted to join the military, and promptly joined the Russian Navy, attending a training center located in Saint Petersburg. Upon graduation, Alek was assigned to work on the base in Severomorsk, the primary operating base of the Russian Northern Fleet in Murmansk Oblast, mainly assisting in various operations in the Arctic. Sometime afterwards, he was reassigned to work as a sailor aboard a large warship. Specifically, he was made as a weapons operator aboard the battlecruiser *Pyotr Velikiy*, the current flagship of the Northern Fleet. During his time at sea, Alek proved himself to be fairly effective at taking out targets, and high-ranking officers in the Russian Navy took note of his achievements, and he promptly received rapid promotions.

At the time of the series, Alek had been appointed as the captain of a warship, a guided-missile destroyer of Project 956 *Sarych*, or the *Sovremenny* class named *Admiral Lisitsyn*. At some point during this time, likely during an international naval exercise occurring concurrently when Urocyia was building its armed forces up, Alek came into contact with some members of the Skulk. Alek wasn't all that fond of working with them, on the account of growing up on not having the best opinion of the United States as a whole, though he eventually grew to have a bit of a rivalry with American naval commander Arthur Snow. They were fairly similar in many ways, though Alek was somewhat jealous of the fact Arthur was in command of a larger warship like a battleship while he had a mere destroyer, though he never explicitly showed it in front of him. This likely made him strive to be as effective as possible when it came to getting promoted and reassigned to a larger warship.

When war broke out between Urocyia and the US, Russia was mostly neutral during the conflict, though they did seem to lean more toward the side of Urocyia while ultimately staying out of the war. Alek was prepared to fight if need be, and had a particular distain toward Urocyan emperor Arian Torres for some of his methods, and worried he may come for Russia at some point. Alek was also among some Russian naval officers to help train Urocyan naval officers, though this period didn't last all that long, and Alek was not fond of this either. It is unclear if Alek is aware of the Skulk's relationship with Arian, though he does know they're on the forefront of the war with Arian's empire.

## Personality

Generally speaking, Alek is mostly cordial with those he meets, and he does try to be polite more often than not. His general good manners are something that many who know him would say quite fondly about him, even despite how temperamental he could be sometimes. On that note, Alek is also sometimes fairly irritable and while on duty, he can sometimes come off as aggressive in the heat of battle. He is not the sort to take any nonsense under his watch, and will openly reprimand someone if and only if they get out of line. Despite that, Alek does try to keep his irritability in check in favor of being a good leader and being effective at his job, something that'd get him some compliments from Russian naval command.

Alek isn't openly good by all means, though he is not inherently bad either. He acts according to how he sees fit, and in regards to where he lands in the political stands, he will act so long as it's within the best thing for his own family, friends, and country. It's those beliefs and dedication to his own that Alek takes particular issue with Arian Torres and what he does, though he wouldn't want to openly work with the Skulk unless he absolutely had to, given the political environment he grew up in. Regardless, Alek can still be seen as an honorable sort of officer who will do what he believes is right, even if it goes against the orders of his superiors, but still within their best interests.

## Abilities

It is well noted that Alek has impressive leadership skills based on his time at sea with the Russian Navy. He is also fairly good at handling various forms of weapons, from hand-held firearms to the naval weapons used by the Navy.

## Relationships

### Neutrals/Rivals

* The Skulk
	+ Arthur Snow

## Trivia

* Alek is a first character for several things, being the first official neutral alignment character, as well as the first character in the series to hail from Russia.

* Alek's surname is actually a homage to an actual Russian naval officer.
	+ Lieutenant Captain Dmitri Kolesnikov, age 27, was a submariner who served in the Russian Navy between the late 1990's up to the year 2000. On August 12, 2000, Kolesnikov was among the initial 23 sailors that survived the sinking of the *Oscar II*-class guided-missile submarine *Kursk* (K-141). In their own final moments, Kolesnikov wrote a letter detailing how things had been going in the 9th compartment he and the other survivors up until their end had come. Thanks to a fire that broke out in the 9th compartment well after the two explosions that sank the sub, it was apparent that none of the 118 crewmen aboard the *Kursk*, including Kolesnikov, would survive the disaster.
* When initially conceived, Alek was going to be much older, in his mid to late 40s to be exact. This mean he would've been within the same range of some of the parent characters such as Scott & Riley Redding. However, it was later changed to be in his mid 30s.
	+ Despite this change, Alek is still much older than the Skulk, even Justin. And is one of the oldest characters in the series thus far.