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 by undercover FBI agent Renee Walker, all of its members were arrested except Laitanan, who disappeared. During Day 8, Renee Walker and CTU New York targeted Laitanan through Ziya Dakhilov as the best possible lead in their investigation of the Russian crime syndicate Red Square.

Before Day 8

Vladimir Laitanan and his associates — among them Lugo Elson, Ziya Dakhilov, and Andrew & Paul Gecelovsky — operated their illegal weapons trafficking ring for some time until six years prior to Day 8. The group was infiltrated by FBI agent Renee Walker using the cover "Renee Zadan", and Laitanan developed an intense but abusive attraction to her.

After all of Laitanan's men were arrested, he had plastic surgery in Caracas to change his appearance. He killed the surgeon after the operation was performed.

Day 8

Vladimir ran a crew of thieves and smugglers — including his old lieutenant Lugo Elson — 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 Dakhilov 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 tailed 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. After Jack and Lugo arrived Laitanan said he would make a few calls so he, Jack, and Renee went to his office. After a while he ordered Lugo to take Jack out of his office. He then contacted Sergei Bazhaev to ask if he knew anything about the rods. Sergei denied that he knew anything and ordered his men to go kill Laitanan before he could find anything out. After he finished calling all of his contacts Renee tried to persuade him to make more calls, but he said it was no use; no-one seemed to deal in such things. He then hit her twice and knocked her down. Renee then took a knife from a bread tray Laitanan knocked over and stabbed him several times killing Laitanan.

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.
• A number of specific details about Laitanan's past with Renee— as well as several undercover photographs from the time — were revealed exclusively in Operation Hero.
• Continuity error: despite the fact that Laitanan had drastic face alteration surgery after his disappearance, he looks identical in all of Renee's photographs from her sting operation.

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