Nikolai Zinoviev

I am one of the supervisors, that's all you need to know!

Nicholai Ginovaef (based on Russian Николай Зиновьев) was a ruthless U.B.C.S. operative and Monitor secret agent (taking part in Operation Watchdog) in the Umbrella Corporation. He served as one of the two main antagonists of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

Raccoon City Outbreak
You can either accept it with dignity or die with regret! Its entirely up to you!

Nicholai served as a Commando Team Leader, with the rank of Sergeant, when the U.B.C.S. was sent into Raccoon City by Umbrella in an effort to contain the T-virus outbreak.

Secretly, however, Nicholai was a member of "Operation: Watchdog"; a covert mission to gather combat data on Zombies and escaped B.O.W.s and other dangers in the infested city. With each collection of information, the agent in question would receive a large monetary reward.

The Platoon he was assigned to suffered heavy casualties, with only he, corporal Carlos Oliveira and Lieutenant Mikhail Victor surviving. Upon the inclusion of former S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine into the group, they prepared for evacuation to the Saint Michael Clock Tower. Before the tram could be started however, Nicholai was attacked by Zombies.

Two days later, on the early hours of October 1st, he was in the Raccoon General Hospital where he was seen by Carlos. He managed to escape before Carlos could attack him, leaving Carlos to run away from C4 charges which later blew up the building.

Nicholai used his position to assume command of a UBCS team tasked with "Operation: Emperor's Mushroom"; to retrieve a sample of blood from a Tyrant named Thanatos. Thanatos proved to be too much for the team to handle, so Nicholai was forced to enact the contingency plan; destroying Raccoon University. This failed, resulting in Thanatos mutating into Thanatos R. However, he had escaped long before the buildings, and thus the Tyrants destruction.

He went to the Raccoon Park where he met Jill again, revealing his real plans, before escaping to the "Dead Factory" upon the arrival of a giant worm.

Jill met him for a final time within the factory grounds, where he commandeered a Helicopter - the same helicopter Carlos told Jill about.

Fate
The player's choice affects Nicholai's fate. If Jill jumped off the bridge, Nicholai has two other fates;

In Resident Evil: Survivor, a report can be found dated October 6, 1998 which is signed by Nicholai. However, this is only in the English version of the game. In the original Japanese version of the game, the report is signed by the "Umbrella BOW Development Team", not Nicholai.
 * If Jill jumps, Nicholai takes the last helicopter, and Jill has the choice to either blow up his helicopter and kill him, or try reason with him, which allows him to escape.
 * If Jill didn't jump off the bridge, then Nicholai is killed by the Nemesis.

The history timeline in Resident Evil 5 confirmed that Nicholai took the last helicopter but it did not confirm whether or not Jill killed him by blowing up the helicopter, basically leaving Nicholai's fate up to the player.

Appearance in Film
Nicholai appeared in the second film. While Nicholai was also a member of the U.B.C.S., his character in the film is radically different than that in the game. This character has a deep sense of goodness and upon introducing himself says he's an ex U.B.C.S member. He's also second in command to Carlos who is his best friend. This is very different from his game counterpart, where he is an evil supervisor who only looks out for himself.

During the outbreak, which led to the deaths of the entire team save Carlos, Nicholai is killed saving the lives of Jill and Angela Ashford, when he is overrun and mauled to death by Cerberi' in Raccoon City Junior High School. He is played in the film by Zack Ward.

Trivia

 * In the novelization of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, author Keith R.A. DeCandido changes Nicholai's surname to "Sokolov."

ニコライ・ジノビエフ