K-19: The Widowmaker is a 2002 historical submarine film directed and produced by Kathryn Bigelow, and produced by Edward S. Feldman, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Christine Whitaker and Matthias Deyle with screenplay by Christopher Kyle. An international co-production of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, the film takes place in 1961 and focuses its story on the Soviet Hotel-class submarine K-19.
The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca. Its founders were the brothers Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela and José Santacruz Londoño. They broke away from Pablo Escobar and his Medellín associates in 1988, when Hélmer "Pacho" Herrera joined what became a four-man executive board that ran the cartel.
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) which was reorganized into the FSB in 1995. The three major structural successor components of the former KGB that remain administratively independent of the FSB are the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP).
In September 1999, a series of explosions hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000, and spreading a wave of fear across the country. The bombings, together with the Invasion of Dagestan, triggered the Second Chechen War. The handling of the crisis by Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, boosted his popularity greatly and helped him attain the presidency within a few months.
Spetsgruppa "A", also known as Alpha Group, or Alfa, whose official name is Directorate "A" of the FSB Special Purpose Center, is a stand-alone sub-unit of Russia's special forces within the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). It was created by the Soviet KGB in 1974. Although little is known about the exact nature of its primary directives, it is speculated that the unit is authorised to act under the direct control and sanction of Russia's top political leadership, similar to its sister unit, the Directorate "V" (Vympel), which is officially tasked with protecting Russia's strategic installations, as well as conducting black operations inside and outside Russia. It is also available for extended police duties, for paramilitary operations, and for covert operations, both domestically and internationally.
The Russian Federation is known to possess or have possessed three types of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and chemical weapons. It is one of the five nuclear-weapon states recognized under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and one of the four countries wielding a nuclear triad.
The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis took place from 14 to 19 June 1995, when a group of Chechen separatists led by Shamil Basayev attacked the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk near the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, during the First Chechen War of 1994–1996. After brief fighting in the city, Basayev and his men took over a local hospital complex where they gathered over 2,000 mostly civilian hostages, demanding a ceasefire in Chechnya and the resumption of Russian negotiations with Chechen leadership. Following several failed attempts by the Russian government to respond to the situation by force, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin personally agreed to Basayev's demands, securing the release of the hostages. The terrorist act in Budyonnovsk was the first hostage crisis in modern Russian history.
Ethan Matthew Hunt is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Mission: Impossible film series. He is portrayed by Tom Cruise. The character of Ethan Hunt is a highly skilled field agent and operative for the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), a secret government agency that handles dangerous and high-stakes missions.
Icon is a thriller novel by British author Frederick Forsyth. Its plot centres on the politics of the Russian Federation in 1999, with an extremist party close to seizing power. Published by Bantam Press in September 1997, (ISBN 978-0-553-57460-9), Icon became a New York Times Bestseller and was adapted into a television film.
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organised crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state".
The Kizlyar–Pervomayskoye hostage crisis, also known in Russia as the terrorist act in Kizlyar, occurred in January 1996 during the First Chechen War. What began as a raid by Chechen separatist forces led by Salman Raduyev against a federal military airbase near Kizlyar, Dagestan, became a hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians, most of whom were quickly released. It culminated in a battle between the Chechens and Russian special forces in the village of Pervomayskoye, which was destroyed by Russian artillery fire. Although the Chechens escaped from the siege with some of their hostages, at least 26 hostages and more than 200 combatants on both sides died. One third of the homes in Pervomayskoye were destroyed.
Sergei Nikolayevich Yushenkov was a liberal Russian politician. He was assassinated on 17 April 2003, just hours after registering his political party to participate in the December 2003 parliamentary elections.
Alexander Litvinenko was an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and its predecessor, the KGB, until he left the service and fled the country in late 2000.
Minin and Pozharsky is a 1939 Soviet historical drama directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and Mikhail Doller, based on Viktor Shklovsky's novel "Russians at the Beginning of the XVII Century".
The Uncharted series, created by video game developer Naughty Dog, features many characters. The series includes the video games Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, as well as a motion comic prequel, Uncharted: Eye of Indra. It primarily focuses on the exploits of treasure hunter Nathan Drake and his associates as they hunt down various mystical artifacts.
The Bourne Retribution is the eleventh novel in the Bourne series and eighth by Eric Van Lustbader. The book was released on December 3, 2013, as a sequel to The Bourne Imperative. It was followed up with The Bourne Ascendancy.
Metro is a 2013 Russian disaster film directed by Anton Megerdichev. It is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Dmitry Safonov.
The Mysterious Wall is a 1967 Soviet science fiction film directed by Irina Povolotskaya and Mikhail Sadkovich.
