Viktor Skobel

Viktor Skobel is a Russian mob boss and the main antagonist in the 2004 PlayStation 2 game The Getaway: Black Monday.

Past
Viktor Skobel was born in Russia in 1955. As he grew up and became older, he got into politics and became a Russian statesman. He was a corrupt politician however and became associated with criminals. Viktor also started getting involved in arms dealing and began trafficking around Europe. He also did some time in prison around this period and upon being released, he got a tattoo on his hand.

Viktor carried out arms deals in London whenever he visited. He mainly sold weapons to gangs and other criminals, not caring what the weapons would be used for. Viktor sold weapons in person to Charlie Jolson and his nephew Jake Jolson in the early 2000's. This can be confirmed by the fact that a member of the Bethnal Green Mob, Eyebrows, mentions in a mission that the gang bought an M79 grenade launcher off a "Russian geezer" and that they're hard to come by. Viktor is Russian, an arms dealer and had sold weapons in London pre 2004, so this is most definitely him. Viktor sold the M79 grenade launcher to Charlie around 2002, which would be used by Jake Jolson and Eyebrows to blow up a prison van and help fake Jake's death.

Present (2004)
By 2004, Viktor had moved away from arms dealing and was now more into organised crime. Viktor became a ruthless gang leader operating in London. Due to Charlie Jolson's demise in 2002, his newly formed gang, the Thieves in Law, was now the most powerful in London. Viktor was so rich and wealthy that he ran his own legitimate business and owned a very secure bank in the heart of the city. Due to his passion for fine art, he had a very valuable icon stored in his bank that contained real diamonds which were worth a fortune. He also owned a factory in Borough, a mansion in Mayfair, a boat along the River Thames, a bath house and a construction site. Viktor had made an alliance with another gang leader, Jamahl, and his gang, the Yardies. The two of them had become friends and Viktor had setup an arms deal with Jamahl at his factory. Jamahl was going to buy a load of weapons off Viktor for a lot of money. Viktor was also concerned with a journalist named Jackie Philips, who had been keeping an eye on the gangs illegal activity. As a result, his men had kidnapped her and taken her to the construction site to torture her for information.

Early one day, Danny West, a boxing coach, had hired a crew; Eddie O'Connor, a boxer, Sam Thompson, a nineteen year old computer hacker, Errol, a heavy weight trainer, Arthur, a safe cracker, and John, acting as the cleaner who would make off with the icon after the heist. They were working for Jimmer Collins, the new leader of the Collins gang and were instructed to steal some credit card codes from Viktor's bank. Danny was in trouble with debt and needed to pay back Jimmer. They also agreed to steal Viktor's icon as a cover up for stealing the codes. Eddie O'Connor led the assault on the bank and beat up the security guards working their. Sam got the credit card codes stored on her laptop while John took off with the icon. Unfortunately for them, the heist went wrong and they were captured. Sam and Errol managed to escape, but Eddie and Arthur were taken to the construction site. Viktor ordered Alexei, nicknamed the dentist, who was Viktor's right hand man, to carry out the torture of the two men responsible for the heist. Alexei killed Arthur and then left after he had found out the location of John, who they believed had the icon. Viktor gave Alexei instructions to return his icon to him at all costs. Eddie however managed to escape after Sam rescued him but Errol was killed during the rescue. Alexei went to John's place and killed him but couldn't find the icon. He told Viktor that Danny West was the man responsible for the bank heist.

Viktor headed over with his heavy Yuri Gorsoy, and other members of his gang to Danny's gym. Viktor then murdered Danny in cold blood, and also shot a kid called Sleeves, a friend of Eddie and Danny. His gang then murdered members of the Collins gang at the gym who had ordered Danny to do the job. They massacred a lot of gangsters and even killed Liam Spencer, and two other high ranking heavies, David Green and Savvy Jones. Jimmer however managed to escape. Eddie and Sam made their was back to the gym and Sam discovered Danny had been killed.

Later on, Viktor got a call from Alexei telling him that one of his men, Levi Stratov had been arrested. Viktor made a phone call and had him immediately released. The police however followed Levi to the construction site where they rescued journalist Jackie Philips who Viktor was having tortured there. Meanwhile, Eddie went after Jimmer Collins, believing he was responsible for Danny's murder, but Viktor had instructed Alexei and Yuri to take care of him and find the icon. Yuri killed Jimmer after Jimmer revealed Eddie probably had the icon. Eddie overheard this and realised Viktor had murdered Danny. Viktor meanwhile was with Jamahl at the factory in Borough, carrying out his arms deal which he'd been planning for some time. He also had Jackie Philips held hostage, after she had been returned to him, during a shooting at a safe house she had been kept in for protection. Viktor instructed Alexei to return to the bank and check Jamahl's deposit had been made successfully. Yuri returned to Viktor at the factory but Eddie followed him from a distance. Viktor met with Yuri and told him to take Jamahl downstairs while he phoned Alexei. Suddenly, Eddie put a gun to his head and threatened to kill him, but Nadya Prushnatova, one of Viktor's high ranking gang members, shot the gun out of Eddie's hand. Viktor had Eddie searched and retrieved his icon. He then ordered his men to kill Eddie, but suddenly, armed police showed up and broke up the deal. Viktor fled with Nadya to a truck outside and drove across London. Eddie however killed Yuri and chased after them. They drove back to Viktor's mansion, where Viktor retreated and ordered his men to kill Eddie. Eddie killed more of Viktor's men and chased him across the rooftops, where he then killed Nadya. Viktor fled to a parked car in his garage and phoned Alexei telling him Eddie was after him. Alexei told Viktor to lure him to the boat and they would deal with him. Viktor made a getaway with an armed escort, but Eddie was still chasing him. He fled to his boat at the River Thames and got on board. The boat took off, but Eddie managed to get on the boat by jumping off a bridge further down the river. Eddie battled his way through the ship and killed Alexei, he then confronted Viktor on the upper deck.

Death
Based on a decision made earlier as to whether Eddie would help Sam or not, Viktor will either held Sam hostage with a harpoon gun, or he will point the gun at Eddie. Viktor explains that where he comes from, he's driven by need not by desire, and he needs Eddie alive in order to escape from the police who are right behind him. Suddenly Eddie attacks Viktor and the two of them tumble onto the front of the boat and engage in a fist fight. The boat crashes and Eddie is knocked out. Viktor flees into the nearby pump house with his men. If Viktor had held Sam hostage earlier, he retreats upstairs into the pumphouse and then throws Sam to her death over a railing. If not, he retreats into the pumphouse with Eddie chasing after him. They engage in a shootout and Viktor runs up to the top floor of the pumphouse where he battles Eddie face to face. After a shootout, Viktor is killed in the game finale. Viktor falls backwards and drops his icon and the diamonds shatter to pieces across the floor. Eddie then escapes having carried out revenge for his friends' murder.