Konstantin Kovar

Konstantin Kovar is a government strongman who ran the village of Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Biography
Taiana Venediktov mentioned Kovar to Oliver Queen when describing the village she'd come from. Taiana wanted to use the power of the Khushu Idol to come back to Krasnoyarsk and free it from Kovar's control. Her last wish was for Oliver to go to Russia, find her parents and then complete her mission.

Intending to honor Taiana's last wish, Oliver traveled to Krasnoyarsk and joined an illegal fighting ring, seeking to locate Kovar. He ended up killing one of the best "money-makers" in Kovar's criminal empire, after which he sent the Solntsevskaya Bratva thugs to take revenge on Oliver. Oliver was almost killed by a Bratva superior, before the timely intervention from Anatoly Knyazev. Knyazev explained that he himself is a "Bratva Captain" (avtoritet), and encouraged Oliver to move on with his life. Refusing, Oliver asked Anatoly to help him find and kill Kovar, to which the Russian crime boss wasn't ready to agree easily, explaining that Konstantin Kovar controls not only the underworld, but also a whole army of government soldiers, and getting to him would be a suicide mission. As Oliver pressed on, Knyazev decided to help with his plan, firstly by training him as a member of the Bratva.

Behind the scenes

 * In DC comics Konstantin Kovar was the father of Leonid Kovar, a Russian superhero known as Red Star, a member of Teen Titans, New Titans and an ally of Red Robin. Konstantin eventually turned up as a villain, the man behind "meta men", before his apparent death.
 * In real life the Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai in 2011 was Lev Kuznetsov. Interestingly enough, fictional Russian surname Kovar is similar to Ukrainian/Slavic word "koval'" which means "blacksmith", while surname "Kuznetsov" is based on a Russian word for blacksmith, "kuznets".