Vysotniki

Vysotniki
Name	Vysotniki
Nihongo	遊撃隊 (ヴィソトニキ)
Information
Parent Group	Soviet Airborne Forces (formerly)
Organized Crime Syndicate	Hotel Moscow
Boss	Captain Balalaika
Members	Sergeant Boris Command Sergeant Major Polanski Corporal Jodorowsky Private First Class Sakharov Corporal Menshov Private First Class Eugene Sergeant Rabochek Corporal Lazar Corporal Daniil Corporal Zamyatin Maskaev David Koslov
Former Members	Junior Sergeant Stanislav Kandinsky Master Sergeant Tiganov (deceased)
Criminal Activities	Murder
First Appearance
Manga	Chapter 04: Rasta Blasta Part 3
Anime	Episode 09: Maid to Kill
Light novel	Black Lagoon: Shaitane Badi

The Vysotniki (Russian: высотники; Japanese: 遊撃隊（ヴィソトニキ） Visotoniki), alternatively called the Visotoniki in the English dub, are the special soldiers of Hotel Moscow who were originally a Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV) paratrooper unit during the Soviet–Afghan War under Balalaika's command. An individual member of the unit is called a Vysotnik.

Black Lagoon history

The Vysotniki are deployed by Balalaika only when the situation gets tense or if they are needed for special operations. The group's members are ex-Soviet veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War in Balalaika's unit who remained loyal to the VDV captain even after being discharged at the war's end. According to Benny, the Vysotniki have a colossal amount of experience and are skilled enough to start and win World War III. In 1989, Balalaika was discharged from the VDV for breaking an international cross-border agreement in order to save a child. In the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, Balalaika met her comrades at a funeral for the death of her second-in-command who lost his life due to "dirty money." Wanting to fight an enemy again as a soldier, Balalaika rallied her men to join her in Hotel Moscow, soon swiftly building their base in Thailand. Soldiers in the Vysotniki commonly wear VDV uniforms with blue-striped telnyashkas.

Rasta Blasta

Although not mentioned by name, the Vysotniki were first deployed by Balalaika after Roberta's rampage to rescue Garcia Lovelace destroyed the Yellow Flag. Discovering Roberta's history with FARC, she knew that Roberta's continued presence would create an unbelievable disaster for Roanapur. As Revy and Roberta engaged in a gunfight at the port, Balalaika ordered the two to stop, with the Vysotniki surrounding the two women. When the two women did not drop their guns, the Vysotniki disarmed them by shooting their pistols out of their hands. Subsequently, the Vysotniki stood guard as Balalaika attempted to convince Roberta that she had no more reason to continue her fighting since Garcia was safe.

After Roberta confessed her history with FARC to Garcia, Balalaika agreed to Revy's request to have a fistfight with Roberta, so the Vysotniki stood guard as the two women eventually settled their fight in a draw. At that point, the Vysotniki ceased their campaign, with Boris driving the two Lovelace affiliates to the airport.

Bloodsport Fairy tale

Balalaika later deployed the Vysotniki when Hänsel and Gretel arrived in Roanapur and killed eight members of Hotel Moscow, with Sakharov and Menshov's deaths being the breaking point. Becoming furious over the death of two beloved comrades, Balalaika had Boris lead the Vysotniki to trap the twins in Roanapur using military tactics and strategy. Once Verrocchio and his men were slaughtered, she gave a speech to her troops about Sakharov and Menshov's spirits and how they would avenge them with their AK rifles. Subsequently, the Vysotniki surrounded the murderous twins' approximate region by positioning themselves in certain alleyways and on rooftops. Jodorowsky reported back to his commander that Revy and Eda were attempting to kill Hänsel and Gretel, so Balalaika ordered him to kill the women if it was necessary.

Using a heavy machine gun, Daniil forced the women to back off as well as forcing the two children in a building. At that point, the Vysotniki lost their sight on Gretel but intentionally let Hänsel follow them to lure them into Balalaika's trap. For the remainder of the night, the troops tired him out to demoralize him before he came face-to-face with their leader. Waiting at a fountain alone, Balalaika knew that Hänsel was watching her and told him to come out. When he claimed that he would finally kill her, Balalaika ordered him to kneel. A second later, Lazar shot him in the right knee and left hand. As Hänsel bled to death, the snipers kept watch while Balalaika watched the child die, violently avenging Sakharov and Menshov's murders. Afterward, Balalaika hired Elroy to kill Gretel when she was forced to dock in Pangkalpinang.

Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise

Later on, Balalaika deployed the Vysotniki when she visited Japan to take out the Kōsa Council as well as later taking out the Washimine Group, even bombing a Kōsa Council business in real time as a good will gesture to the Washimine Group. At first, the Vysotniki had no problem taking down the various bases of the Kōsa Council on behalf of the Washimine Group. In their initial campaign, they even spied on underbosses and other members to target them for elimination. Soon, because of the escalation of the troops' attacks and even killing Kōsa Council members who surrendered, this led to hatred from members of the Washimine Group due to the attention their actions could have brought to the Japanese police, whom Balalaika characterized as honest and hard to bribe. When Balalaika told Tsugio Bandō that (against Bandō's wishes) she wanted to kidnap the head of the Kōsa Council, Bandō finally decided that Balalaika's group was going too far in their original mission.

After Bandō attempted and failed to kill Balalaika, Yukio Washimine decided to involve herself in the Washimine Group. At the same time, Balalaika ordered the Vysotniki to kill the Washimine Group, viewing Yukio as a nobody among the group. Consequently, the Russian troops stormed hideouts and killed multiple Washimine-affiliates throughout the city, ensuring escape from police by using electric company vans to move troops. They used snipers and even had Lazar disguise himself as a deliveryman. To organize the campaign, Balalaika, Boris and Polanski commanded the Vysotniki's moves and received reports about each assassination in the Marya Zaleska war room. After each enforcer was killed, Rabochek drew a red X over their pictures to mark their deaths.

After the Vysotniki killed most of the men loyal to Yukio and destroyed all of the bases' surveillance tapes, Yukio managed to grab one tape to see the design and build of the Russians' vans. To counter the Vysotniki's campaign, Yukio and Ginji robbed a bank and put a spade sticker on their own van to make the police chase the Vysotniki vans with the same design. Jodorowsky's red-spade van escaped, and the annoyed Balalaika commended Yukio for her attempts to counter her campaign, saying that she needed to make a point of crushing Yukio. Balalaika then pondered making an alliance with the Kōsa Council due to Yukio's actions, but she and Boris later killed the Kōsa head and the remaining members inside, deciding to no longer pursue the Washimine Group since they were essentially powerless. The two Russians then reconvened with their fellow Vysotniki on the Marya Zaleska to leave the country and return to Roanapur.

El Baile de la muerte / Roberta's Blood Trail

When Roberta returned to Roanapur to pursue a U.S. Army squad, Balalaika was greatly concerned about the U.S. presence since they would crush the drug trade in Roanapur. Although she initially planned to engage with the troops head on and kill them, Balalaika hesitantly changed her mind due to Mister Chang's persuasion. deployed the Vysotniki to stave off Shane Caxton's soldiers. In exchange for Grey Fox not interfering in Roanapur and Hotel Moscow's affairs for that matter and preventing Roberta from killing them, the Vysotniki offered to cover the rooftops and give cover to the Army to allow them to leave safely. When Revy and Shenhua tried to interfere by planning to shoot Caxton and take Garcia Lovelace, Zamyatin wounded them both, with Balalaika sending them a message that the war was between the troops. As Roberta chased the escaping U.S troops, the Vysotniki shot at her motorcycle with all their firepower, preventing Roberta from chasing the troops further. Caxton's squad was able to escape Roberta and leave by traveling on the Lagoon Company's boat, putting an end to the Vysotniki's mission.

L'homme sombre

When Rock got the idea to use Dutch to set up an ambush against Les Cinq Doigts, he went to Balalaika for help since she also wanted revenge against the Doigts for killing several Black men contracted under Hotel Moscow. Balalaika had Hotel Moscow, mostly Vysotniki, blend in with customers inside the nightclub where Dutch would be, and when the French agents arrived, Hotel Moscow completely surrounded them and started shooting. The Vysotniki managed to flank them on all sides and blocked the exits, cornering each agent except for Le Majeur, who was in on the ambush plan and had escaped earlier. When Dutch managed to wound L'annulaire, the Vysotniki surrounded the wounded woman and killed her. Because of her death, L'index surrendered, but Balalaika did not accept her surrender and shot her in the head, ordering the other Vysotniki to sweep the area for the remaining two agents. In the end, the Russians succeeded in their mission and discovered the two murdered French agents, but the women managed to kill two Vysotniki and wounded six others.

El réquiem de los Desalmados

Balalaika's Moscow-based boss Pyotr Slevinin asked her to help Hotel Moscow's Mexican branch aid the Guadalajara Cartel, their regional ally. Accordingly, she sent Maskaev's team of Vysotniki to Vasily Krivchenko in Cananea, Mexico. There, the Vysotniki engaged in a campaign against the Nuevo Laredo Cartel but also had to deal with their ally, the upcoming cartel Los Soldados. Despite their new numbers and localized victories, the Vysotniki lost many soldiers in the process of killing the rival gangsters. Additionally, they were still outnumbered and Maskaev's forces had to withdraw, resulting in a significant amount of the Guadalajara Cartel's forces being wiped out. To resolve the conflict, Varenkov attempted to negotiate a truce with Los Soldados, but the latter were bent on getting revenge against Krivchenko since they viewed the ordeal as a matter of honor. As a result, Slevinin decided that Hotel Moscow should cooperate with the Nuevo Laredo Cartel in order to prevent their decline in power and further losses for the Vysotniki.

Light novel history

Shaitane Badi

In the first Black Lagoon light novel Shaitane Badi, Balalaika mobilized her Vysotniki to kill the former Vysotnik Stanislav Kandinsky, who himself was a former member in her VDV unit but a non-mafioso. After being captured by the Afghan Mujahideen, Kandinsky killed several of his former allies with his excellent sniping skills. He eventually escaped their custody and rejoined the Vysotniki but then later fled the region, becoming a mercenary. In the mid-1990s, Kandinsky had attempted to kill Mister Chang and blame the murder on Hotel Moscow. On a later night, Kandinsky was aiming his sniper rifle and thought he was going to kill Mister Chang that time, one of Balalaika's snipers from far away had shot Kandinsky in the soldier, forcing him to take cover while his arm could no longer aim his firearm well. Once profusely bleeding, Kandinsky tried to walk to the street where Chang was supposed to briefly appear, but Balalaika arrived and shot Kandinsky before he could fire his Makarov pistol, and Balalaika watched him die on the ground as she saluted him.

Ballad of the Sinful Wizard

In the second light novel Ballad of the Sinful Wizard, Balalaika agreed to participate in Rock's scheme to hunt a CIA agent whom he blackmailed. Unknown to Rock, the agent was Eda. Specifically, Balalaika agreed to help Rock when he met the agent, although Balalaika had glared at Rock and said that she would not promise that she would participate in the CIA hunt. After the meeting, Balalaika decided that she would deploy four teams of Vysotniki snipers to cover Rock from the Yellow Flag to his destination. When Rock went to the motel to wait for the agent to bring him thousands of dollars in cash in return for handing over Tricia O'Sullivan, Eda's hired gunman Gibert, a local drug user, went to Rock and ran at the ex-salaryman, but Balalaika's proficient Vysotniki had shot Gibert in the back of the head, killing him. Subsequently, Rock rummaged through Gibert's belongings while Eda froze since she saw that Rock had good backup from afar, not willing to risk her own life to stop Rock. After the successful mission, Balalaika was in her office and with binoculars had spotted Rock in a nearby alleyway, remarking that her four Vysotniki sniper teams performed fantastically. At that point, Balalaika ordered her teams to withdraw.

Trivia

• The English transliteration "Visotoniki" in the English dub is a misspelled word, the actual word is "vysotniki" (singular высотник; plural высотники) which refers to pilots trained for high-altitude flights and parachuting. The reason for this spelling is that the English translators wrote the Russian word using the Japanese katakana instead of using Russian-to-English transliteration.
• Another Russian term which Balalaika uses to refer to her men is "Desantniki," which is a common slang substantive that designates the Russian paratroopers (officially called Vozdushno-Desantnye Voyska, Airborne Parachutist Troops). Balalaika and her Vysotniki were in the VDV and Balalaika has worn a coat with light blue insignia on the collar, a light blue beret, and she and her soldiers wear blue-striped telnyashkas.