Anton Beresch

Anton Beresch was a Dawn Brigade separatist commander and the leader of the team that James Nathanson assembled to take over Ontario Airport.

Beresch worked with Nathanson and Ivan Erwich in obtaining the canisters of stolen Sentox VX nerve gas, that Vladimir Bierko would later use to strike against the US government.

Background

 * Date of Birth: 25 June 1961
 * Place of Birth: Grobnal, Kaukistan
 * Aliases: None known
 * Scars and marks: None known

Education

 * Grobnal Military Academy (graduated 1985)
 * Staprol Artillery School (graduated 1981)

Military

 * Dawn Brigade - Commander (appointed 4 January 2000)
 * Kaukistani Army - Chief of Staff
 * National Army - 7 years service

Before Day 5
Upon graduation from the Grobnal Military Academy, Beresch was assigned to Lovakia. In 1990, he was transferred to Vllniuk, Carpathia, and later assisted in suppressing the nationalist movement in Sithuania. In 1992, Beresch retired from the Soviet army and joined the nationalist Kaukistani Army, serving as its Chief of Staff. From 1995 to 1998, Beresch led rebel forces in combat against the Republic, until his removal from power and exile. In 2000, he was appointed a top commander of the Dawn Brigade.

Day 5


During the second hour of Day 5, Beresch was in constant contact with James Nathanson. They both hoped the recent assassination of President David Palmer would cause President Charles Logan to delay the summit, but Logan insisted on continuing signing the Anti-terrorism treaty with Russia.

While Beresch prepared his men (including his lieutenant, Vlad, Ibrim, Ishmael, Ivan, and Achmed) Nathanson confirmed that they would be going dark. Beresch and his men entered the Ontario Airport and took control of it. On a live broadcast, Beresch revealed that he would kill all of the hostages if Logan and President Yuri Suvarov went forward with the treaty. If Logan did not make a public announcement about calling off the signing, Beresch would kill a hostage every 15 minutes.

After executing his first hostage, Beresch grabbed 15-year-old Derek Huxley and decided he would be the next one to be executed. When Derek begged for his life, Beresch told him his president would be the one deciding whether he lives or dies. When Logan went forward with the signing, Beresch was preparing to execute the young boy, but one of his men's explosive vests went off.

Assuming that the vest was set off by some malfunction, Beresch was contacted by Nathanson, who informed him that former CTU agent Jack Bauer was in the airport and was responsible for the explosion. Bauer was also giving intel to CTU, preparing for a rescue operation to go underway. When Beresch learned this, he threatened to kill Derek if Bauer didn't expose himself, and Jack was forced to comply with his wishes.

With Bauer at his disposal, Beresch decided to use Bauer in order to learn CTU's playbook on the rescue operation. Beresch had Bauer tell CTU to scrap up their current plan of action, and get into the airport through the emergency exit. Beresch decided to place his men there, and ambush the CTU field agents.

Beresch's men later found Chevensky, who was dead. Chevensky had access to a keycard, and Beresch's men were able to find it. Beresch handed off the card to one of the hostages, who was later identified as Ivan Erwich. When Lynn McGill found a distress code in Bauer's message to them, Bill Buchanan had Curtis Manning call off his operation and return to the original plan. The operation proved to be a success, and CTU stormed into the airport.

First attempting to escape, Beresch learned that he was cornered and Bauer would eventually interrogate him to find out information. Beresch attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head, but Bauer shot him in the hand, making him drop his pistol. Beresch tried suicide again, this time by self-destructing one of the explosive vests and was successful.

Background information and notes

 * Kaukistan is a fictional country, referred to on the show as "one of the Russian breakaway republics." Vllniuk, Staproi, Grobnai, Lovakia, Carpethia, and Sithuania are also fictional.
 * The Dawn Brigade is a fictional "factional fighting force" based in "Kaukistan" and responsible for numerous bombings in Russia.
 * Beresch had a passport listing his nationality as "Russie" and his place of birth as Bratsk, U.S.S.R.