Nikita Ivanovich Aleksandr

Nikita Ivanovich Aleksandr (Russian: Никита Иванович Александр), occasionally referred to as The Leader, is the Russian Advanced Weapons General.

Little is known about the illusive man with the gas mask. According to legend, he was once a highly gifted but unstable child prodigy raised in a cadre school who attained his doctor's degree of engineering at 18. His talent didn't go unnoticed by the Federation military which offered him a position in the Advanced Weapons Research & Development Corps, one of the most secretive but insufficiently funded units that existed since the Soviet era.

Tasked with the development of new protection systems and sensor equipment, Aleksandr seized his grand opportunity when Russia's new President Suvorov visited the facility in the Ural Mountains in 2028. After a grandiose rhetorical introduction, young Aleksandr presented him with his pet-project, the prototype of a revolutionary directed energy weapon based on the theories of Nikola Tesla, the legendary Serbian inventor whose eccentric quirks Aleksandr would consciously invoke for his own image. The President was impressed, promoted him on the spot and authorized the R&D Corps to sign its own blank cheques.

A decade later, Aleksandr, now a General, is in full control of the Corps, having turned it into an exclusive, borderline cult-like organization with its own military wing, the infamous Shock Divisions, a horde of nigh-inhuman warriors blindly obedient and forever loyal to him. His glorious victory against the Sino-American task force that attacked his hidden research complex in Kurmuk provided proof of his military genius as well, making him the candidate of choice when it came to leading the invasion of Europe a few years later.

Once a friendless loner, Aleksandr now enjoys the company of the most extravagant circles of Russian society with all the associated decadence and lewdness. He is a man with two faces: While most people only know him as the brilliant, magnificent 'scientist general' with the iconic gas mask, only a select few people had ever seen the raving, highly unstable and largely wretched personality that hid behind it. Those who have seen his true self would attest that, if given the authority, he would waste no time exterminating much of Europe's population for his own amusement.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away,