Rodislav "Ray" Nikolaievich Bulgarin (September 8, 1958-April 2008) was a Russian Mafia boss and the head of the Bulgarin crime family, a major organized crime syndicate in the Adriatic Sea region and New York City. Bulgarin was infamous for being the leader of a powerful human trafficking ring in the former Yugoslavia, and he controlled one of the most influential international criminal organizations. In 2008, he headed to the United States to chase after some stolen diamonds and to expand his business, and he had Georgian Mafia boss Marki Ashvilli assassinated. However, Bulgarin himself would be killed by Luis Fernando Lopez aboard his private jet after attempting to kill Lopez three times.
Biography[]
International criminal[]
Bulgarin holding an AK-47
Rodislav Nikolaievich Bulgarin was born in the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in September 8, 1958 to Russian Orhotdox parents and he became involved with the Russian Mafia during his formative years. Bulgarin decided to move to New York City during the 1980s and smuggle humans into the United States, and he became the head of his own Mafia family. Bulgarin was busted by the NYPD after receiving a shipment of Albanian sex workers in New York Harbor during the late 1980s, leading to his arrest for human trafficking in 1989 and his deportation back to Russia. Bulgarin became a high-profile figure in global organized crime as a result of his deportation, and he continued to run human trafficking operations in the Adriatic Sea countries during the 1990s and 2000s.
Return to New York[]
Bulgarin on arrival in New York, 2008
In 2008, Bulgarin decided to return to New York City and expand his business, as he was hoping to purchase the Maisonette 9 nightclub from Tony Prince and the New York Rangers hockey team from Marki Ashvilli, as well as to murder Niko Bellic, who was believed to have stolen $2,000,000 worth of diamonds from Bulgarin. Bulgarin moved into his sister Galina's Forest Hills, Queens apartment alongside his bodyguard Timur Ovchinnikov, and he formed an alliance with fellow Russian mobster Dimitri Rascalov, who decided to help Bulgarin with his hunt for Bellic. Bulgarin and Rascalov's men failed to kill Bellic in an ambush at a Red Hook warehouse, and Rascalov and Bellic would go to war; Bulgarin had other issues to take care of. When Ashvilli refused to sell him the club and, in turn, opened a federal investigation against Bulgarin, Bulgarin hired Prince's bodyguard Luis Fernando Lopez to kill Ashvilli's team of corrupt cops in the 2008 Yorkville parking garage shootout before killing Ashvilli himself at the MeTV building.
Betrayal of Lopez[]
Bulgarin with a grenade
Bulgarin attempted to have Lopez killed after discovering that Tony Prince had attempted to purchase the stolen diamonds from "the Cook", the true diamond thief. Bulgarin succeeded in killing the Cook, but Lopez survived, killing several of Bulgarin's hitmen as they attempted to murder him in an anmbush on the rooftops of Little Italy. Bulgarin failed to kill him twice more; he sent men to kill Lopez at a transaction with the McReary crime family on Randalls and Wards Islands, and his hit squad was massacred in the Maisonette 9 shootout. Bulgarin's alliance with the Ancelotti crime family against Lopez would come to nothing, as Lopez killed Ancelotti enforcer Vince Pelosi and all of Bulgarin's hitmen; it was Bulgarin's turn to fear for his life.
Death[]
Bulgarin's death
Lopez would hunt Bulgarin down, destroying the heroin that Bulgarin had received from Rascalov, killing Ovchinnikov and several other mobsters on Coney Island, and chasing Bulgarin to JFK International Airport. Bulgarin attempted to escape in his private jet, but Lopez succeeded in entering the plane as it took off, and he shot Bulgarin's guards before confronting him. Bulgarin emerged from the cockpit with a grenade in his hand, threatening to blow the whole plane up. Lopez shot him in the head as Bulgarin pulled the pin, and he parachuted to safety as the plane exploded.