Ivan Melkikh
Ivan Melkikh is a Russian military officer affiliated with the Society for the Restoration of the Russian Empire in Komi. If the OVRI unifies West Russia and proclaims the formation of the Holy Russian Empire, he becomes commander-in-chief of the Holy Russian Empire's air force, is named Minister of War by Sergey Taboritsky after he purges Pyotr Shabelsky-Bork, and leads the Imperial Airborne Brigades warlord state after the Empire collapses.
Biography
Political career
The airborne troops of the Holy Russian Empire were largely considered to be the least politicized branch of the military, so when the Imperial Airborne Brigades secedes from the empire, Ivan Melkikh also abandons the Imperial Cult to become a simple bandit.
No longer loyal to Taboritsky's ideals, Melikikh's state is created in former Yugra and uses the local oil reserves to its advantage. His clique has access to massive fleets of helicopters, and they use these to pillage and raid local towns for profit.
In this sense, Melikikh and his clique are a perverted twist on the Free Aviators, a warlord era statelet of pilots who dedicated themselves to fighting off the Luftwaffe's terror bombings out of pure goodwill, situated in virtually the same area that Melikikh will occupy. By contrast, Melikikh and the Airborne Corps become the very raiders the Free Aviators once protected West Russia against, for no baser motive than plunder and bloodthirst.