Mikhail Novakovich

Mikhail Novakovich was the Russian Foreign Minister in the United States during Day 8. He was a key conspirator who helped facilitate President Hassan's kidnapping and execution.

Day 8
Novakovich was at the Fort McGuire Air Force Base after Omar Hassan's botched rescue attempt. At around 7:00am, he asked aide Susan to speak with President Allison Taylor. Taylor met with him in a lobby of the building and he asked if Hassan was still in the hands of the terrorists. As he inquired about the leads that CTU was following, Taylor refused to get into details. Novakovich told her that if Hassan wasn't recovered, the government in the IRK would be in disarray, which would harm the peace treaty being signed; if Hassan died, Russia would not agree to the peace agreement. Taylor replied that she felt Novakovich was "hoping" for that outcome, since the peace agreement weakened Russia's influence on the IRK and they had been looking for excuses to pull out. Novakovich denied the accusations, pointing out how they were present at the peace talks. Taylor apologized and asked if she could count on Novakovich's support until they found Hassan, and he agreed.

Hassan was killed by Samir Mehran, and Novakovich prepared to pull out of the agreement and leave the US. His man Pavel secretly injected Samir with a poison at the crime scene to prevent him from revealing anything about the Russian government's involvement. Pavel called to tell Novakovich that Renee Walker might have recognized him at the scene, from her time undercover with Red Square six years earlier; Pavel was currently following Renee and Jack Bauer to the latter's apartment. Although Novakovich was against killing the two, as it could draw attention, he asked his superior Russian President Yuri Suvarov about the situation, and Suvarov gave the order to kill Renee Walker. Through the intervention of Charles Logan, Novakovich was blackmailed to once again join the table for the Peace Treaty and convince the powers behind him to back this decision. Logan was seeking to save the peace treaty with Kamistan to clean his tarnished image as a disgraced former President. Novakovich relented, knowing well of Russian operations in the past. Novakovich became a conspirator with Logan after the fact, plotting to assassinate Jack Bauer who had began to discover the lengths of their conspiracy following the death of Renee. Novakovich lent every available resource to both Logan and his right-hand man, Jason Pillar, to murder Jack and silence his knowledge of the assassinations of both Hassan and Renee.

Eventually, a frightened Novakovich watched as the pieces of their conspiracy unraveled around them because of Jack's rampage. Under the suggestion of Logan, he lent out his top assassin, Pavel Tokarev, to once again try and kill Jack.

Once he learned that Jack had escaped again and tortured Pavel to death, he called Logan to question their end of the bargain: to kill Jack Bauer. Logan consoled him that Jack was going to be imminently captured. Novakovich, frustrated, hung up on Logan and began to regret his role in the conspiracy. Shortly after, Jack took out three security guards above his main bedroom.

Later on, after the injured Logan was knocked out and left alone by Jack, he placed a phone call to warn Novakovich that Jack was coming for him. Novakovich and six of his men were killed by Jack at some point following Logan's release.



A lone bodyguard, Berkov, crawled to his side and took a cell phone from Novakovich's corpse, warning Logan that Jack had taken them out. Novakovich, sprawled out on the floor, had been stabbed with a fireplace poker through the abdomen as a vengeful punishment from Jack. Logan then called the mastermind behind Novakovich and the conspiracy, Russian President Yuri Suvarov, to warn of the plot having fallen apart.

Background information and notes

 * In a "scene extender" seen in Operation Hero, Logan remarks that Novakovich was a minister in the KGB.
 * Novakovich is Jack Bauer's last victim of the series.
 * It is interesting to note that Novakovich's name bears a strong resemblance to that of Mike Novick - Mikhail and Michael are closely related names. Novick was actually credited (erroneously) as "Mike Novak" in the Season 5 DVD release. The -ovich suffix, in Russian, means "son of" - one possible way of Anglicizing the name would be "Michael Novakson". There is also a moderate physical resemblance between the two characters.