Loyalists

"Loyalists, sir? Are those the 'good' Russians or the 'bad' Russians?"

"Well, they won't shoot us on sight, if that's what you're asking."

- Captain Price

"Yeah, well that's good enough for me sir."

- Gaz

Loyalists, nicknamed "The Good Russians" by Gaz, are soldiers of a military who remain with the established government. This term is often used to distinguish between two military forces of the same nationality, particularly during a civil war or revolution in a nation. It is to note that during the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 all of Russia is at war with the United States upon being misled by the airport terrorist attack in "No Russian." Thus the bulk of enemies are Russian Federation Troops, but since the Ultranationalists won the civil war in between Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, these troops are those in favour of the Ultranationalist, not Loyalist.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ' s single player campaign features Russian Loyalists who are fighting Ultranationalists, a paramilitary force in opposition to the established government of the Russian Federation. The Loyalist forces also include special purpose regiments forces called Spetsnaz (Russian for "special forces"). In the single player campaign, the player fights alongside Loyalist forces throughout the game when playing as MacTavish of the SAS who help the loyalists through out the game. Sergeant Kamarov is the leader of Russian Loyalist unit that the player fights alongside. The Russian Loyalists appear to be more well-equipped than the Ultranationalists, but for the most part use the same weapons such AK-47s, AK-74us, RPDs, SVD and RPG-7s, however, they also use G36C rifles. Both the Russian Loyalists and Ultranationalists have armor and air support in the form of BMP-2s, T-72s and Mi-24s. The Loyalists are dressed in a Camouflage uniforms, wear black helmets equipped with night-vision goggles or Russian ushankas. Russian Loyalists are featured in the single player levels such as Blackout, Safehouse, Sins Of The Father and Game Over.

The Ultranationalists appear to be - for the most part - equipped with substandard, cheap, outdated equipment, (AK47, Skorpion, RPD, RPG-7), much as we would see with many other ex-Soviet states while the real Russian Military is very modernized with weapons such as the AK-74 and derivatives (seen in game but only the very inaccurately modeled AKS-74U) as the standard rifle, and Special forces (Spetsnaz) being mainly equipped with a wide variety of weapons that do not appear at all in the game, such as the AK-74, OTs-14 GROZA, and the advanced AN94. It is not entirely unreasonable to see them with AK-47s, as these (most likely AKMs, not AK-47s) are sometimes used in urban environments, as the 7.62mm round fired by the AK-47 can penetrate cover better, versus the 5.45mm round fired by newer Russian assault rifles (which can still penetrate better then the NATO 5.56mm, which NATO compensates for by still extensively using battle rifle such as the M14, FN FAL and SCAR-H). Almost no modern Russian equipment appears in the game, with the exception of most of the Russian vehicles and the SVD. Even the newer equipment in the game they are seen with, such as the G36C and M9, is not, and has never been, in use by the Russian military.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
In August of 2016, the central government fell to the Ultranationalists. According to Soap MacTavish during the briefing of The Gulag, he mentions that the prison contains the losers from the last war, "...which I swore I thought we had won." Those losers were most likely former loyalists who would not conform to the new government; the rest become part of the Russian army once again. Other than Nikolai, the closest thing to Loyalists featured in the game are soldiers from the Federal Security Service (or FSB), a federal police service and successor to the Soviet KGB. They are shown as a counter-terrorist force, arriving by van to an airport, responding to the terrorist attack at an airport carried out by Makarov in No Russian. These soldiers are armed with more advanced, though still non-Russian equipment. They are capable of using an MP5k and Riot shield in tandem, something the player character can't do. The game features conventional Russian troops and Spetsnaz units, which are part of the vast Russian invasion that devastates the United States and are playable in Multiplayer. They mobilize BTR-80 APCs, Mi-28 and use a mix of new and old equipment, though like their FSB counterparts they make limited use of Russian firearms. However, all Russian troops in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are, by national loyalty, Ultranationalist, and not Loyalist, as the Russian Federation is now Ultranationalist by majority, and the Loyalists would now be the rebel group, not the group loyal to the country. According to a newspaper found in Makarov's safehouse in Loose Ends, it stated that the Loyalist Government was backed by the United States.

Loyalists

 * AK-47
 * AKS-74U
 * Skorpion
 * RPD
 * SVD
 * GP-25
 * RPG-7
 * G36C
 * M9

FSB

 * MP5k
 * Riot Shield
 * USP .45
 * TAR-21
 * FAL
 * F2000
 * Vector
 * Striker
 * P90
 * UMP .45
 * PP-2000

Vehicles

 * Mi-8
 * Mi-28

Characters

 * Nikolai
 * Sgt. Kamarov
 * Sgt. Aleksandr Vasilev
 * Sgt. Aleksei Vyshinskiy
 * Sgt. Alyosha Murzaev
 * Sgt. Anatoly Voroshilov
 * Sgt. Boris Ryzhkov
 * Sgt. Borya Shapovalov
 * Sgt. Kolya Shvernik
 * Sgt. Mikhail Zhuravlev
 * Sgt. Nikolai Kalinin
 * Sgt. Petya Malenkov
 * Sgt. Sergei Shkuratov
 * Sgt. Vanya Gerasimov
 * Sgt. Viktor Kuznetsov
 * Sgt. Vladimir Brezhnev
 * Sgt. Volodya Andropov
 * Sgt. Volodya Sarayev
 * Sgt. Yakov Gushenko
 * Cpl. Aleksandar Rykov
 * Cpl. Borya Mikoyan
 * Cpl. Dima Chernyshenko
 * Cpl. Dima Tikhonov
 * Cpl. Kosya Gridin
 * Cpl. Nikolai Turdyev
 * Cpl. Aleksei Ulyanov
 * Cpl. Oleg Stepanoshvili
 * Cpl. Petya Avagimov
 * Cpl. Vanya Chernogolov
 * Cpl. Vikor Yakimenko
 * Cpl. Yuri Kiselev
 * Pvt. Alyosha Tarkovsky
 * Pvt. Anatoly Ivashenko
 * Pvt. Dimitri Bondarenko
 * Pvt. Ivan Afanasyev
 * Pvt. Ivan Lukin
 * Pvt. Kostya Golubev
 * Pvt. Mikhail Voronov
 * Pvt. Oleg Kosygin
 * Pvt. Pyotr Bulganin
 * Pvt. Misha Mishajashvili
 * Pvt. Pyotr Demchenko
 * Pvt. Sasha Semenov
 * Pvt. Vladimir Brezhov
 * Pvt. Vladimir Sabgaida
 * Pvt. Yuri Nikitin
 * Pvt. Sasha Ivanov
 * Pvt. Konstantin Petrov

Trivia

 * As seen in some trailers of Call of Duty 4, there was going to be a mission or a number of missions where the player would get to play as a Loyalist fighting the Ultranationalists. One trailer featured the player escorting a tank while fighting off Ultranationalists.
 * A randomly generated Loyalist may have the name Dimitri Petrenko, the playable Soviet character in Call of Duty: World at War.
 * Several loyalists have Georgian surnames, despite being Russian soldiers (i.e. Oleg Stepanoshvili, Misha Mishajashvili).
 * Some of the Loyalist troops wear a Soviet hat badge's, with the well-known Communist logo of the Hammer and Sickle, even though they are fighting to keep the Ultranationalists from reforming the Soviet Union. This could simply be due to the Loyalists having to find military surplus, or because Infinity Ward may have just reused this badge from previous Call of Duty games.
 * In the mission "Safehouse", call in the close air support (the Loyalist Havoc helicopter "Mosin 2-5). After he leaves to refuel and rearm, call him again. He will say "We are refueling, stand by" or "We are rearming, stand by". The voice will be similiar with Nikolai's voice.