Mikhail Akulov

Mikhail Sergeievich Akulov is a fixer of the Soviet Union in.

Biography
Mikhail Akulov is the top fixer in the Soviet Union and, as such, represents their interests abroad. Akulov officially travels to Night City for a diplomatic business trip, however he is rumored to have been seduced by the freedom and capitalism the city brings. Regina Jones, the best fixer in Watson, hires V on behalf of a client to investigate this by bugging his car.

After the car has been bugged, V is tasked by Regina with stealing an encrypted datashard from Akulov's penthouse suite in the Hotel Raito. After entering, V overhears conversation between Mikhail and Nadezhda Tiurina. V can choose to kill Akulov in the course of taking the shard. After V departs the hotel with the shard in hand, Regina asks them to deliver it directly to the client, an unnamed lieutenant colonel in the Chinese military waiting not far from the hotel. The lieutenant colonel's bodyguard verifies the datashard, but its "Matryoshka" encryption is too complex to break on the spot, and they depart.

Based on messages found in Akulov's computers, V's brief encounter with the lieutenant colonel, and a datashard taken off the body of a burned netrunner named Shelma in a bunker outside the Trailer Park, Akulov's arrival in Night City was related to the Soviet Union and China competing to secure a major arms deal with Arasaka that would put the losing country at a severe military disadvantage. The Secretary General of the Soviet Union hired Akulov to personally spearhead negotiations with Arasaka on his behalf. The fixer brought Shelma to monitor Chinese activity on the local Net, conceal his purpose in Night City, and check the status of China's talks with Arasaka, but the Chinese were prepared and burned Shelma. Akulov was unaware of Shelma's death and his exposure. The Chinese had Akulov's car bugged, then had the datashard containing details about the Soviet negotiations stolen from his suite. At the time V breaks into Akulov's suite, the weeks of negotiations with Arasaka had hit a wall, and Akulov was seeking permission from the Secretary General to sweeten their offer.