"Ivankov has decided to go into business for himself."
"I told you the man was another Stalin." - Mihai Niculescu and Mara Aramov discuss Ivankov's activities at the start of Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain.
Mikhas Ivankov is a major antagonist in Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, as the commander and founder of the Chechnya Democratic Partazians (CDP).
Plot
Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain
A loyalist to the Chechen liberation cause, Mikhas Ivankov had fought to succeed from Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. He witnessed atrocities committed by the Russian armies in his village, and wound up drafted into their ranks. Over time Ivankov became a decorated officer and participated in Soviet battles fought to achieve world Communism.
During an unknown period, Ivankov affiliated with the Organizatsiya Obshina, a Russian Mafia group with ties to foreign criminal enterprises. He also joined the Soviet Politburo, but failed to push for Chechen liberation.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ivankov pressed to release his country, but the Russians refused this, and forced him to rebel. He established the Chechen Democratic Partizans (CDP) while constructing an army. Russian and Chechen forces battled throughout the middle nineties with the latter losing to a superior opponent. Ivankov and his party, composed of various CDP officers and officials of former KGB, Spetznaz, and Politburo radicals turned their army into a terrorist faction to change their tactics.
Ivankov's mafia connections led to involvement with members of the Syphon Filter operation. He was familiar with Mara Aramov and shared similarities to fellow Chechen Erich Rhoemer, although the extent of their cooperation is unknown. The CDP used Russian facilities to assist the transport of cattle infected with the Omega Strain.
Motivated to destroy Moscow, Ivankov sent CDP courier Anatoly Yushchenko to sell the virus on the black market. While Yushchenko went to Carthage and then to Kyrgyzstan unscathed, his next operation to Yemen ended in disaster when a joint Mossad-IPCA mission to sabotage the transaction with the YLA caused the deaths of numerous parties, including various YLA leading figures and Yushchenko himself. Although this plot disintegrated, the Chechens were subsequently successful at procuring a nuclear warhead from North Korea in exchange for a viral sample. Ivankov attempted to launch it from a Ukrainian base, but Agency forces intervened.
Wounded in the battle with I.P.C.A. personnel, Ivankov fled into the nearby Ukrainian forest. Director Logan managed to track him and personally killed him in close-quarters combat..
Personality and characteristics
"The new virus appears rather unstable. But Ivankov doesn't seem to care."
A complete sociopath, Ivankov resembled Rhoemer whose attitude was that the missile target 'doesn't matter' to him. A radical, his military group soon turned to terrorism to achieve his own endgames.
Appearances
Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain
- Prologue (mentioned)
- Carthage, Michigan: Quarantine Zone (cutscene)
- Carthage, Michigan: Carthage Mall (mentioned)
- Mazyr, Belarus: Krivorozhstal Mill (mentioned)
- Mazyr, Belarus: Belaya Vezha (cutscene)
- Minsk, Belarus: International University (mentioned)
- Samaschki, Chechnya: Ivankov's Home (mentioned)
- North Atlantic: Lorelei Salvage Rig (mentioned)
- Taguang, Myanmar: Irawaddy Basin (mentioned)
- Zurich, Switzerland: Niculescu Funds Tower (mentioned)
- Budva, Montenegro: Niculescu's Villa Estate (mentioned)
- Kiev, Ukraine: Chechen Terrorist Base (cutscene)
- Epilogue (flashback, mentioned)
Trivia
- He is one of the few antagonists who the player does not confront but is killed off-screen, unlike Erich Rhoemer, Jason Chance, Grant Morrill/ Singularity and Ghassan al-Bitar.
- Originally, the player would have been able to assume the role of Gabe himself and kill him in gameplay but due to the rushed release of the game, Bend instead implemented a system where his death is heard of but not seen.