Russian Roulette characters

Also known as Yasha Gregorovich

Appears from the start

A contract killer in his twenties, the most reliable Scorpia has, known for taking any commission without argument and completing it without trace. He has just been given a contract he cannot bring himself to execute, and rather than refuse it outright he sets down the account of how a boy from a village nobody has heard of became the man holding the rifle. Born Yasha Gregorovich, he has not used that name in years.

Appears from the start

A fourteen-year-old English schoolboy who has become an inconvenience to a great many dangerous people, and who is now the subject of a contract. Yassen has him in view, has the means, and does not shoot.

First appears in chapter 13

A Russian businessman who made an immense fortune out of the collapse of the Soviet system, living behind walls with bodyguards, dogs and a household staff who are not free to leave. He is casually violent to the people who serve him and entirely confident that nothing will ever be done about it.

Also known as John Rider

First appears in chapter 20

An Englishman who has risen fast inside Scorpia, working under the codename Hunter, and who is put in charge of the organisation's newest recruit. He is patient, unshowy and better than anyone else on the island, and unlike the rest of Scorpia he treats the boy in front of him as a person. He is also Alex Rider's father.