Nikita Dragovich

"He has no fear, no conscience, no weakness. This is Nikita Dragovich."

- Robert McNamara

Major General Nikita Dragovich (Russian: Никита Драгович) is the main antagonist of Call of Duty: Black Ops. He was responsible for the death of Dimitri Petrenko and the creation of "Project Nova". Dragovich is also responsible for the numbers program which brainwashed Mason into becoming a sleeper agent.

Early life
Dragovich was born on August 10, 1914, in the Russian city of Tsaritsyn (now known as Volgograd). Nothing else is known about his early life.

Massacre at Red Square
"Promises of reinforcements were made. Made, but not kept."

- Reznov, telling of Dragovich's "promises".

Amongst the chaos during the Siege of Stalingrad, General Dragovich abandoned his promise for reinforcements and left Viktor Reznov's men to be massacred at Red Square. It was here, that Reznov learned that Dragovich should not be trusted.

Capture of Steiner
"We are here for one German, and one German only. Doctor Friedrich Steiner."

- Dragovich explaining his plan to get to Steiner.

After the war, Dragovich was in charge of interrogating German POWs, from which he learned about the Nazi's failed attempt to use V-2 rockets with Nova 6 warheads to strike the US and the Soviet Union. He, along with Lev Kravchenko, his right hand man, volunteered for the Soviet's Operation Olympus. This operation required them to capture a scientist named Friedrich Steiner and bring him and Nova-6, a biochemical weapon created by Steiner, back to Russia. Dragovich led a group of Russians commanded by Captain Viktor Reznov, along with Dimitri Petrenko. They were ordered to capture Steiner in a Nazi stronghold in the Arctic Circle. During the mission, they found Steiner, captured him, and discussed about Project Nova. When they found the weapon aboard a frozen ship, Dragovich decided to test the weapon on Reznov's squad. Petrenko and his men died from the gas, but before Reznov could share the same fate, British Commandos attacked the site in order to take or destroy the weapon shipment. The shipment was destroyed by Reznov, however, Dragovich escaped with Steiner meaning the weapon could be recreated. 14 years after, in 1959, Dragovich received Party approvals for use of Nova 6 in a first strike capacity in the event of World War III.

Capture of Alex Mason
"He will know suffering beyond his darkest fears. I have plans for you, American."

- Dragovich upon capturing Mason.

During the next 16 years, Dragovich climbed through the ranks of the Red Army and ultimately became one of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union, with its entire military seemingly at his disposal. In 1961, Dragovich turned out to be working with Fidel Castro, securing an alliance with the Cuban Government to allow Dragovich to operate within Cuban borders. During the Bay of Pigs invasion, Operation 40, a CIA led assassination team was ordered to assassinate Castro. However, the evacuation went awry, and Mason was captured by Castro, Dragovich, and Kravchenko.

Brainwashing of Mason
"Wait a few moments...let him rest. When he regains consciousness, double the voltage."

- Dragovich telling Steiner to brainwash Mason.

Later, he brought Mason to Vorkuta, a Soviet labor camp. While there, Dragovich had Steiner implant Mason with number sequences to translate the number codes necessary to receive instructions as Dragovich's sleeper agent. Dragovich also tried to brainwash Mason to kill current President of the USA, John F. Kennedy. However, that was with little success. He considered the brainwashing of Alex Mason a failure, and decided to let Mason rot in Vorkuta, but Reznov, who was also an inmate of Vorkuta, used his friendship with Mason to sabotage the brainwashing by implanting new targets to kill: Dragovich, Kravchenko and Steiner, in revenge for betraying him and killing Petrenko.

Presumed Death
"Trust me....That rat bastard's a fucking charcoal briquette."

- Woods attempting to convince Mason that Dragovich is dead.

About a month after the Vorkuta escape, Dragovich oversaw the launch of two Soyuz rockets as part of the Soviet Space Program, in which he took Kravchenko with him to watch the project. Operation 40 had planted a double agent named Grigori Weaver working with the Ascension Group to help out with the infiltration by the X-Ray and Whiskey Teams. Weaver however was discovered and Dragovich ordered Kravchenko to "take care of him". Kravchenko stabbed Weaver in the eye with a knife, causing him to lose his eye. X-Ray hunted down and rescued Weaver, who, despite the injuries he obtained, was able to continue on with the mission. Mason, Woods and Weaver sabotaged Soyuz Two in time, and hunted down the Ascension Group. Kravchenko left the base in his private Mi-8 assault helicopter while Dragovich appeared to have tried leaving in his private limousine. Mason's team chased and destroyed the limousine and assumed he was dead. Mason, however, had the feeling that Dragovich was not present in the limousine, which later turned out to be correct.

Second Capture of Mason
"It's been too long, Mason. We must make up for lost time."

- Dragovich after capturing Mason again.

It was discovered by SOG that Kravchenko had been operating in Vietnam and they were told to hunt down and kill him. A Soviet cargo plane thought to contain Nova 6 was shot down by the CIA, and a SOG team comprised of Mason, Woods, Bowman and Reznov, were ordered to recover it. They reached the wreckage after fighting enemy resistance only to find that the Nova 6 dispersed after the crash. They found a map for 's compound, but Soviet forces had arrived on the ground below. The SOG team battled them, but the team, were found by Dragovich and Kravchenko soon after, with the result that all of them were captured by the Soviet forces.

Death
"You should've been my finest agent! If it all had been so much simpler!"

- Dragovich before Mason chokes him to death.

In the final mission of the campaign, Mason and Hudson attempt to capture Dragovich in the sinking Rusalka in Cuban waters, only to find the Rusalka was just a surface component; the real numbers station was in an underwater base beneath the ship. They fought their way into the base at the same time the attack from the surface was tearing the base apart, causing it to flood and explode bit by bit. After the two split up, Mason finds the broadcast control point on an overhanging platform and prepares to shut it down, but an explosion dislodges him from the platform. Mason grabs onto the edge of the platform just as Dragovich emerges from the smoke. Just when Dragovich moved to execute Mason, Hudson intervened and shot him in the shoulder. While Dragovich was distracted on attempting to kill Hudson, Mason grabbed his arm and pulled him over the edge of the platform, dropping both Dragovich and himself onto the ground as water rose up from below. Mason then reprimanded Dragovich for the way he brainwashed him which resulted in the deaths of his SOG colleagues Woods and Bowman. After Mason reprimanded him for trying to make him kill John F. Kennedy, Dragovich responded by saying "Tried?". Mason then choked him to death under the water, ultimately drowning Dragovich underneath the rising water.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Though Dragovich did not appear throughout the past story arc of the campaign, he was mentioned and seen in a cutscene when Woods told the story of how Alex survived the numbers to his son, David Mason. Thus, Dragovich can be seen when Mason was being programmed by Steiner. It is however revealed that Kravchenko was the one who reprogrammed Mason rather then Dragovich.

Trivia

 * The protagonists in Call of Duty: Black Ops have different ways of pronouncing Dragovich's name. Some, such as Robert McNamara, stress the second syllable, while others, such as Alex Mason, stress the first.
 * Nikita Dragovich was #7 on Game Informer's list of Top 10 Villains of 2010.