Vladimir Laitanan

Vladimir Laitanan was the man in charge of an illegal Russian arms-trafficking ring prior to Day 8. After the ring was broken up, all of its members were arrested except Laitanan, who disappeared. According to Renee Walker, who had been an FBI agent working undercover to infiltrate the ring, Laitanan had connections with an extremely mysterious criminal group known as Red Square. She believed a man named Ziya Dakhilov knew of Laitanan's whereabouts, and CTU focused on Laitanan as the best possible lead in the investigation.

Day 8
Vladimir ran a crew of thieves and smugglers from a garage in downtown New York City. He was approached by Ziya out of the blue, who was on probation and a potential security risk, who he threatened to kill. Ziya then offered a proposition on the behalf of Renee, resuming her cover as a Russian criminal, for the sale of isotopes. Vlad agreed but, after questioning Renee, didn't believe her story and had both of them taken hostage in the back of a jeep. Unbeknownst to him, however, Jack Bauer followed them and headed the surveillance on their whereabouts. He organized a rescue operation at the pier they arrived at.

The first thing Vlad did was execute Ziya, who he had no use for. Then he offered Renee one more chance to come clean about whatever he believed she was hiding. When she didn't relent and asked him to execute her, he realized she was serious and explained it was all a mock-execution. He and his crew then took her out of the harbor to discuss their deal.