Yuri (Modern Warfare)

Yuri (Russian: Юрий) was a Russian Loyalist and main protagonist in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. He was an ex-Spetsnaz operative who served in Nikolai's Loyalist Army, and was considered to be Nikolai's best man. He played an important role during the Ultranationalist crisis before, during, and after the Third World War.

Early Life
"I was young... and patriotic... when I first met Vladimir Makarov..."

- Yuri, about his past as a former Ultranationalist.

Not much was known about Yuri until the revelations in Prague. It is known that Yuri served in the Spetsnaz and was (as he described himself at the time) "young and patriotic" during the 1990s. His idealism caught the interest of Imran Zakhaev and Vladimir Makarov, eventually befriending the latter. Yuri served in the Ultranationalist party primarily escorting Makarov throughout the crisis. In 1996, Yuri and Makarov were in one of the vehicles during Zakhaev's attempted arms deal exchange in Pripyat, Ukraine. After Lieutenant John Price's assassination attempt on Zakhaev, Yuri and Makarov helped escort Zakhaev after his left arm was dismembered. Nearly 15 years later, during Khaled Al-Asad's coup d'état in the Middle East, Yuri was standing next to Makarov when he detonated the nuclear device on Al-Asad's orders to level the city, killing close to thirty thousand U.S. Marines. However, the events Yuri had experienced made him uneasy about his affiliation with the Ultranationalists.

Defection and Going into Hiding
"I know what you have done, Yuri. I know what you have told them. My friend. My ally. My betrayer. What happens here today, will change the world forever. Nothing can stop this. Not even you."

- Makarov confronts Yuri about betraying him before the massacre at the Zakhaev International Airport.

When Yuri had learned of Makarov's plans to conduct a massacre at the Zakhaev International Airport, Yuri had attempted to stop it, alerting the FSB and possibly assisting Joseph Allen's undercover operation. However, Makarov had learned of Yuri's betrayal and shoots him in the process, leaving him for dead. A wounded Yuri attempts to pursue Makarov's team and intervene, but passes out from blood loss, being treated by paramedics that arrived on the scene. This event alone drove Yuri to have a strong hatred of Makarov.

Pursuing Makarov
After Price, Soap, and Nikolai arrive at the Loyalist safehouse in Himachal Pradesh, India, Yuri was introduced to Price under dangerous circumstances. Soap was badly wounded and needed evacuation from the safehouse after Makarov's men launch an attack on the safehouse. Yuri aids Price and Nikolai in treating Soap's injuries, as well as facilitating their extraction out of the country. Having knowledge of Makarov's patterns, but not revealing his true nature to the pair, Yuri would point out possible locations Makarov would go to, mainly the location of Makarov's arms deals in Sierra Leone, as well as speculating Makarov's security detail. Yuri helped facilitate the relaying of intelligence acquired from his missions with Soap and Price to their allies until getting their lead on his location in Prague.

Revelations
"Zakhaev... never forgot what we did for him that day. Our reward was power—but power corrupts... Thousands of souls...extinguished... by the push of a button. This wasn't war. It was madness! I was a soldier of Russia, not a taker of innocent lives! But in his eyes, this marked me as the enemy."

- Yuri tells Price about his relationship with Makarov in "Blood Brothers".

Acting on intelligence given by Team Metal, Price, Soap, Yuri, and Sgt. Kamarov organize a local resistance to facilitate their infiltration for Hotel Lustig. Yuri spent the majority of the mission partnered up with Soap, providing support for Price in the cover of a church overlooking the Hotel Lustig. However, the assassination mission goes south, with Makarov having suspected Yuri's presence (mainly because Soap saw Makarov looking right at him.) Makarov says to Yuri over the radio uplink, "Yuri, my friend, you never should have come here," before detonating bombs on Price, Soap, and Yuri. Soap pushes Yuri out of a window to save him, and Soap caught on to Makarov's knowledge of Yuri. Yuri aids Price in rushing Soap to a nearby building, only for Soap to reveal Makarov's knowledge of Yuri to Price seconds before his death. Enraged, Price punches Yuri down a flight of stairs and threatens to kill him, before Yuri reveals his former allegiance to the Ultranationalists. Yuri and Makarov were both close friends and witnesses to the assassination attempt on Imran Zakhaev and the nuclear bomb in Al-Asad's capital city. Immediately before the Zakhaev International Airport massacre, Makarov had Yuri at his mercy after discovering that Yuri, who did not believe in the mission, had betrayed them. Makarov shot Yuri and left him to die, and a wounded Yuri pursued Makarov and his cohorts with a dead guards P99 before collapsing from trauma and blood loss, and a nearby medic was able to save him. Convinced of his regret, Price reluctantly keeps his alliance with Yuri.

Redemption
Yuri gives Price the location of a potential headquarters located in a fortress in Prague. However, during their infiltration, they instead find intelligence that Makarov's men found Russian President Boris Vorshevsky's daughter, Alena, hiding in Berlin. The pair relay the intelligence to Team Metal shortly after the base's destruction. Despite Team Metal's efforts, Alena was kidnapped and tracked to a diamond mine in Siberia, which was serving as one of Makarov's main tactical bases. At this point, Price and Yuri conduct a joint operation with Team Metal in saving the Vorshevskys. They are successful in the extraction, but Team Metal perishes in the process from the collapsing of a mine, facilitating a wounded Yuri's extraction. Despite this, Yuri and Price's efforts have ensured peace talks between the United States and Russia.

Death
Despite the end of the war, Yuri accompanies Price in the Arabian Peninsula after having successfully tracked down Makarov in the Hotel Oasis. Yuri gets wounded by a piece of re-bar when a helicopter obliterates part of the hotel, telling Price to continue the mission without him. Yuri manages to free himself and is just in time to save Price from Makarov's execution. Yuri is then shot twice in the chest and once in the head by his former friend, thus killing him. However, Yuri's death buys Price much needed time to kill Makarov.

Trivia

 * He is one of the few playable characters in the Modern Warfare series to have a visible body. Others include Soap, Burns, Captain Price and Frost.
 * In Soap's Journal it says that Yuri and Nikolai "go way back."
 * In "Persona Non Grata" when the player takes control of the UGV, the player can see Yuri on the laptop. The model for Yuri is not the one seen in "Dust to Dust", but is instead Kamarov from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * Yuri and Andrei Harkov are the only Russian playable characters in the Modern Warfare series.
 * Early concept art of Yuri showed him older looking with light gray hair and more muscular.
 * The concept art version of Yuri resembles actor.
 * Yuri is the 11th playable character to die in the series so far.
 * In "Blood Brothers", while in the "No Russian" flashback, Yuri uses Viktor's character model.
 * In the Modern Warfare series, Yuri is the second playable character to die as a NPC, first being Soap.
 * He is the first Russian to be a playable character in the Modern Warfare series.

Quotes
"Makarov's council all together in the middle of a war zone? Sounds convenient."

- Yuri, before Eye of the Storm

"I was young...and patriotic...when I first met Vladimir Makarov..."

- At the start of Yuri's revelations.

"I was a soldier of Russia, not a taker of innocent lives. But in his eyes, this marked me as the enemy."

- Yuri's flashback during the events of "No Russian".

"You sure this armor will protect us?"

- Yuri to Price in the beginning of the level "Dust to Dust".

"Leave me! Don't let him get away!"

- Yuri when he was injured in "Dust to Dust" (Also his last words)