Vlad

Vlad
Vlad as seen in the F.B.I Files in PAYDAY 2.
Career information
Role	Former Ukrainian Mob Boss Crime.net Contractor Kataru King
Biographical information
Also known as	Vladislav Kozak The Ukrainian
Nationality	Soviet (pre-1991) Ukrainian (post-1991)
Language(s)	English, Ukrainian, Russian
Age	Unknown
Physical description
Hair color	Black, slightly graying
Eye color	Blue
Ethnicity	Slavic
PAYDAY information
Portrayed by	Ilia Volok
Voiced by	Ilia Volok
Quotes	Vlad/Quotes
v·d·e

Description
A Ukrainian who used to be a feared enforcer in the Russian Motherland. Vlad's been running his own extortion and crime racket in DC out of his local bakery for years.

"Make them remember the true meaning of Christmas: THE PRODUCTION OF NARCOTICS AT THE POINT OF A GUN!"

—Vlad during Santa's Workshop in PAYDAY 2.

Vladislav "Vlad" Kozak, also known as "The Ukrainian", is a supporting character and a contractor in PAYDAY 2 and PAYDAY 3. He is seen in the second episode of the PAYDAY 2 Web Series. He is described as being crazy and deranged by fellow criminals, but holds a position of power within the criminal underworld. He also has a strong presence in PAYDAY 2, including some of the easier contracts such as Four Stores.

Background[]

Description[]

"I am a kind of a person, who you tell one thing and I remember that thing forever. I have a looong memory...like a library."

—Vlad introducing himself.

Vlad was a well known Ukrainian criminal in Washington, D.C., having a violent crime history in the Metro D.C. area and alleged ties to the Russian mob. Before coming to the United States, he was presumably the boss of a sizable mob.

However, at one point Vlad was sold out by a friend, arrested, and sent to prison for eight years. At the start of PAYDAY 2, Vlad has recently been released, and is now seeking to both re-climb the criminal ladder and exact revenge against his former friend.

Vlad is the head of security of Charlie Bertram's Tasteful Club. It is unknown whether or not Vlad now owns the club following the assassination of Charlie Bertram.

He was again charged with promoting prostitution and criminal conspiracy; if convicted, Vlad could end up serving a 25-year sentence in prison. The arrests came as a result of a four month joint investigation by the D.C. Metro Police and the FBI.

Vlad appears several times in PAYDAY: The Web Series, mainly being tasked by Bain to deal with Special Agent Jordan Griffin, an FBI agent that Bain was worried would get too close to the truth. Vlad does this by having Agent Riker, a man from the same department & seemingly Griffin's partner, act as a mole. He is also seen at his club, where he threatens the woman he is normally seen with to do as he says. The series ends with him warning Griffin that if she keeps looking into Crime.Net and the Payday Gang, it will not end well for her. He then leaves, and says he hopes they will meet again.

Judging by the title of PAYDAY Web Series Episode 6, Vlad seems to be good friends with Gage and the two make weapon deals in order to supply Vlad's men.

Vlad apparently has a wife, whose brother the crew has to escort to safety during the White Xmas heist, and a sixteen-year-old niece as mentioned in the Keep the Party Going Side Job description.

The FBI Files[]

This Ukrainian national has been known to the authorities for a while. Serving his time in the Russian mob (notably in the Donetsk/Rostov area), he is well-known for his aptitude for violence.

Vlad has been involved in many criminal enterprises, including weapons, prostitution, extortion and drug smuggling, though he exhibits strong entrepreneurial tendencies and could be involved in any number of rackets.

Vlad typically offers contracts that exercise his taste for violence, a desire for revenge against those who have wronged or disrespected him, and violent, high-stake jobs.

PAYDAY 3[]

Vlad returns in PAYDAY 3 after the Payday gang is forced out of retirement. Knowing the gang's predicament caused by their enemy, John Concord, Vlad offers a job for the Payday gang to rob a nightclub of its cryptocurrency wallet.

Later on, one of Vlad's money laundering fronts is raided by a corrupt police captain named Blythe, leading to his (dubiously) legally-obtained gold stashes confiscated as "evidence". Enraged, Vlad contracts the Payday gang to steal it back in exchange for information between Blythe and Concord that Vlad had found interesting.

Hoxton Revenge[]

Spoiler Warning!
During the heist it is revealed that the FBI thinks of Vlad as a law abiding citizen (a baker) and even an upstanding member of the society. It is stated that he has no criminal history and that he probably was wrongfully arrested after being framed by Dimitri. Bain is suspected to use him as a front without his knowledge.
End of spoiler Warning!

Achievements (Payday 2)[]

Hello, My Friends!
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Normal difficulty or above.

Ally From the East
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Hard difficulty or above.

On the Rise
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Very Hard difficulty or above.

Madman Absolution
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Overkill difficulty or above.

Upstanding Citizen
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Mayhem difficulty or above.

Like a Fucking Sputnik!
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Death Wish difficulty or above.

Vlad Will Sing You a Song
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Death Sentence difficulty.

A Sad Vlad is Bad
Complete all of Vlad's jobs on the Death Sentence difficulty with the One Down mechanic activated.

Contracts Offered[]

PAYDAY 2[]

Contracts offered by Vlad tend to focus on him attempting to re-climb the criminal ladder and consolidating his power with destruction and robbery.

The contracts offered tend to be more overly aggressive in nature, though occasionally stealth is possible. Vlad's initial contracts are among the most straight-forward and contain very few random events, but the more recent additions to this roster all seem to have a certain propensity for outlandish and bizarre goals, often with crucial information withheld from Bain and the player crew.

Although he is not the contractor for it, The Ukrainian Prisoner contract involves the crew rescuing Vlad and stabilizing his condition as a result of the Golden Dagger triad torturing him. The heist will end in failure if Vlad dies.

PAYDAY 3[]

Contracts currently offered by Vlad in PAYDAY 3 are far less extreme than his PAYDAY 2 counterparts, though it shares a similarity in that it starts with seemingly normal and somewhat less-risky heist measures before immediately jumping to more dangerous jobs, such as going from robbing a nightclub of its crypto wallet to raiding a police station. Unlike PAYDAY 2, Vlad's current contracts can all be completed in stealth if one chooses to do so.

Trivia[]

General[]

Vlad is portrayed and voiced by the Ukrainian actor Ilia Volok.
- Coincidentally, Ilia Volok was also the voice and model of another character named Vlad (Vladimir Kamarivsky) in the single-player campaign of Battlefield 3.
- He also played a short role of "Vlad" in the TV series Clipped.

PAYDAY 2[]

Vlad may sometimes sing the Soviet folk song Kalinka after a successful Four Stores heist.
He is often portrayed with a care-free and cheerful attitude when communicating with the PAYDAY crew. However, this may be a facade as Vlad has expressed irritation, frustration, and downright vengeful attitude in Ukrainian Job, Aftershock (when trying to reach the gang at the beginning), and most evident in Meltdown when Bain chastises him for going after nuclear warheads.
- Vlad also withholds crucial information from Bain. He does not inform him about the security cameras and guards present in Four Stores, the Russian mobsters in Nightclub, and, most dangerously, the nuclear warheads in Meltdown. In at least one line, Bain expresses irritation over this. In Meltdown, he even snaps at Vlad over the radio for this.
Despite Bain being the contact for it, Bain mentions Vlad when players collect the minimum amount of bags on Jewelry Store, stating "...that is enough for Vlad". This is probably because Jewelry Store shares a great deal of assets with Ukrainian Job, the heist given by Vlad.
Vlad was apparently planned to be Russian during development, as evident by the many references to this country in his quotes, most of which were cut from the final game, further reinforcing this theory.
- Bain refers to Vlad almost exclusively as a Russian, despite Vlad's profile description stating explicitly that he is Ukrainian.
- Vlad appears to have a cut heist hinted within his unused voice files. The dialogue explains that a shipment of AKs from his old country has arrived in a private airport but has been seized by the FBI. He then tasks the crew to recover the weapons before the FBI escapes with them. Given the pre-release Vlad's strong associations with the country, and that Kalashnikov rifles are mainly of Soviet/Russian origin, along with Ukraine being part of the Soviet Union at the time of his birth, it is fair to assume that Vlad's "old country" is indeed Russia.
  - The files suggest that the first day of Firestarter was originally supposed to be one of Vlad's given contracts.
On Day 2 of Election Day plan C, when the server crashes, Bain will sometimes mention that he obtained the software from Vlad, and then proceed to mock him.
- Likely due to the reason above, Bain, on Day 1 of Hotline Miami, will mention that he wonders if the Commissar got the code reader in the shelter from Vlad when the crew have to scan the barcodes with the device, due to its slow read time and tendency to malfunction during crucial moments.
Vlad may be a possible reference to Semion Mogilevich, believed to be a real-life "boss of bosses" for the Russian Mob, wanted by the FBI on their top ten Most Wanted list (but removed from said list in 2015 as it is very unlikely Mogilevich will ever be taken to justice.) One of Mogilevich's nicknames is "the Ukrainian", due to him being from Ukraine, a trait unique for high-ranking Russian mobsters.
In the Slaughterhouse remake, on Overkill and above, Vlad will call in to inform the Payday Gang about a marked pig and offers a reward if the crew brings it in; the reward being the limited-time Slaughter safe and drill (no longer the case), an achievement, a very low amount of money, and some experience for a secured bag. Doing this is not necessary to complete the heist.
As of Update #133, Vlad can sometimes appear in the living room or at Jimmy's bar in the Safe House, drinking vodka with a woman in a red dress named Sofia. He has voice responses that he uses when idle and when interacted with by the player, some of which are specific to the character interacting with him.
- Some idle voice responses have Vlad singing lines from the Russian translation of the Internationale, used as the anthem of USSR 1922-1944.
- As of the Breaking News event, Vlad will no longer spawn upon finishing The Golden Grin Casino and The Diamond heists.
Vlad seems to be old-fashioned, as he still uses a flip phone as seen in the Offshore Payday video. In addition, during the Stealing Xmas heist, he appears to not know what a VR headset is.
The San Martín Bank in Mexico contains treasures of the House of Romanov, the last reigning house of the Russian Empire, which Vlad claims to be "family heirlooms". If what Vlad says is true, he might be a descendant of the Romanovs.
- Also inside one of the deposit boxes is a tape that implicates Vlad and his involvement with the Dentist and Murkywater. The Payday gang does not destroy the tape as requested and can instead be found and listened to in the kitchen of the Safehouse.

PAYDAY 3[]

Update 1.1.3 of Payday 3, inexplicably changed Vlad's character portrait to no longer resemble that of Ilia Volok.
- The reason as to why this is, as of now, is unknown. Ilia Volok has not come out to state the reason behind his removal from the game.
- Despite this, his voice lines are still used for the Rock the Cradle cutscenes and briefing, albeit his art is changed within each. He returns to voice Vlad for the in game cutscenes and briefing for the recently released Boys In Blue heist.
- In a "Heist with Almir" stream, Almir Listo was asked about the change in Vlad's portrait. In which, he responded by saying it was due to a "likeness issue."
  - Whether or not this is true is yet to be confirmed. Almir could be telling the truth, but it could also be very likely that he was not told the full matter of the change.
  - Additionally, this could be the result of Payday 3's marketing decision to stray away from using real actors to portray the characters.
    - This, however, also makes no sense as with the release of Boys in Blue, Clover was added as a playable heister whose in game model is based off of her voice actress, Aoife Duffin.