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 — including his lieutenant Lugo — 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 ttailed them, headed the surveillance on their whereabouts, and had Brian Hastings prepare a rescue operation at the pier where they arrived. The first thing Vlad did was execute Ziya, whom 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 away from the harbor to discuss their deal.

Back at his garage, Laitanan agreed to do business with Renee's client but kept asking if her relationship with "Ernst Meier" (Jack Bauer undercover]]) was an intimate one. He gave her time to set up a meet at the cost of $5 million, but then secretly sent Lugo with three others to simply kill Meier instead of sell any information. To ensure that Laitanan would follow through, Renee allowed him to sleep with her despite her powerful hatred of him. Soon he revealed his plan to murder Renee's contact to her, and when she panicked for Jack's safety, he roughed her up. His control of the situation unwound when he received a call from Jack Bauer — still playing the role of Ernst Meier — who shouted that Laitanan was asking for "war" and three of his men had been killed when they made a move on him. When Jack threatened to kill Lugo, only then did Laitanan agree to take the deal seriously.

Background information and notes

• Before his first live appearance, Laitanan was seen in surveillance footage at CTU NY during Day 8: 7:00pm-8:00pm.

Appearances

Day 8

4:00pm-5:00pm	5:00pm-6:00pm	6:00pm-7:00pm	7:00pm-8:00pm	8:00pm-9:00pm	9:00pm-10:00pm
10:00pm-11:00pm	11:00pm-12:00am	12:00am-1:00am	1:00am-2:00am	2:00am-3:00am	3:00am-4:00am
4:00am-5:00am	5:00am-6:00am	6:00am-7:00am	7:00am-8:00am	8:00am-9:00am	9:00am-10:00am
10:00am-11:00am	11:00am-12:00pm	12:00pm-1:00pm	1:00pm-2:00pm	2:00pm-3:00pm	3:00pm-4:00pm