Marina Ivanovna Nikolaeva. Italian-Russian. The dead wife of General Nikolaev and the mother of Natasha.
On August 8, 2008, the Russian-Georgian war broke out. It was also the same day that Marina, who was engaged in intelligence gathering in Georgia, was found died by the Tbilisi police in the hotel she stayed at. Through the individual items in her suitcase, she was finally confirmed to be a Russian intelligence personnel.
Since the war ended in less than a week, the news was not disclosed. After the signing of the ceasefire agreement, the Georgian government returned the body of Marina to Russia with the remains of other Russian soldiers.
Eventually, Marina was buried with other Russian soldiers killed in Georgia in the Preobrazhensky Cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow. Nikolaev attended her funeral with Natasha, who was only 15 years old at the time. Since then, the relationship between them deteriorated.