The post-Soviet Mega-Cities within the Judge Dredd universe.
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East Meg One
Orlok The Assassin
An East Meg One judge sent into the Big Meg to spread Block Mania through the water supply in order to soften it up for the Apocalypse War.
- Hero Killer: He takes out Dredd's sidekick (the original Judge Giant) with a shot In the Back. Later on he almost manages to take down Dredd in a straight fight as well, even succeeding in temporarily driving Dredd bonkers via an application of concentrated Block Mania.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Orlok's blood contains an antidote for the Block Mania drug. After Dredd captures him, it's used to create Mega-City One's antidote for the drug.
- Impersonating an Officer: He briefly disguises himself first as a delivery guy and then as a judge to take control of weather control.
- Moral Myopia: Rages endlessly at Dredd and Mega-City One for them destroying East-Meg One and killing half a billion people, ignoring that East-Meg One STARTED the war and killed at least four hundred million people themselves, not to mention engaged in several covert terrorist actions beforehand for the sole purpose of invasion, including most notably manipulating Captain Skank into nuking an entire sector of Mega-City One and killing four million people. Even the surviving East-Meg rulers have severed all connections with him and consider him and his supporters a rogue group. It's not until the East-Meg Remnant Trial against Dredd, where Judge Anderson ends up putting Orlok on the witness stand, that he's forced to admit that he would have done the exact same thing as Dredd did, and he's been a hypocrite pretending otherwise.
- Just Following Orders: His go-to excuse for why his actions against Mega-City One were justified.
- Professional Killer: He isn't known as Orlok The Assassin for nothing. Most of his missions for the East Meg diktatorat involve him assassinating someone in a foreign city.
- The Remnant: Leads a small group of survivors of the destruction of East-Meg One.
- Renegade Russian: After East Meg One's destruction, he seeks revenge, at one point releasing a biological weapon on a tourist resort.
- Revenge Before Reason: Orlok becomes obsessed with revenge against Dredd and Mega City One even more than most East Meg One survivors were, and conveniently ignores the fact East Meg One brought this upon themselves with their war against Mega City One.
- Robot Buddy: His Satellat robot assists him in his mission in the Meg, distracting, killing and providing Orlok with limited flight distance.
- Synthetic Plague: He's responsible for spreading the Sov developed Block Mania through Mega-City One, setting the stage for the Apocalypse War.
Diktatorat
Diktatorat, L-R: Judge Snekov, Supreme Judge Josef Bulgarin, Judge Vlad
The leadership of East Meg One who started the Apocalypse War.
- Big Bad Wannabe: They serve as the Men Behind The Man Captain Skank and Orlok in preparation for their war with Mega-City One. Unfortunately, they overestimate the loyalty of their War Marshal and end up overthrown and killed.
- The Chessmaster: Bulgarin and the other two judges mastermind the pre-invasion with a Hate Plague, dozens of murders, and taking a good chunk out of the city.
- Hate Sink: They're a bunch of brutal warmongers who started a chemical/nuclear war with Mega-City One to cripple it and enslave the remaining population, while brushing off tens of millions of their own perishing in the inevitable retaliation as "acceptable losses".
- Lack of Empathy: When Bulgarin is informed that up to 12% of his own population may be killed within the first hour by the inevitable Mega-City One counterstrike, his only response is "The people? What have they got to do with it?" Meanwhile, he and the other two Diktatorat members will be safe underground. Averted by Judge Vlad, who is horrified and thinks the people should be informed.
- We Can Rule Together: They try to earn back Kazan's loyalty by offering him a seat on the council; Kazan scoffs and sneers "I AM the Diktatorat!" right before they are executed.
War Marshal Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is an East Meg One War Marshal who became The Starscream and the final antagonist of the story.
- Ax-Crazy: He's a vicious man to his enemies and his subordinates, shooting down anyone who even remotely displeases him.
- Bad Boss: A particularly horrible one. He shoots whoever displeases him and for some he forces them to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun every day to lengthen their punishment. Matters get worse to the point his own troops willingly let him get assassinated by Dredd simply because of how many of his own men have died as a result of his command. Even the rare moments when he is in a good mood are no better, as shown when he almost strangles his subordinate Izaaks to "demonstrate" the hopeless strategic situation of Dredd and his forces at the Dan Tanna Bridge.
- Big Bad: Of the Apocalypse War Arc, especially after he killed all of his commanding officers in a coup d'etat, nuked Mega-City One, and captured and brainwashed Chief Judge Griffin. Once he dies, the entirety of East Meg One's forces decides to submit to unconditional surrender, ending the Apocalypse War.
- The Chessmaster: Before starting a massive ground invasion of Mega-City One, Kazan systematically wipes out a large portion of the judge force while keeping the other two American mega-cities at bay. If it makes it any clearer, he’s always near a chessboard, to say the least.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Attempted to inflict one on Judge Dredd and the rest of the Apocalypse Squad after they were captured for nuking East Meg One off the map, ordering them to be tortured so that they would spend the rest of their natural life in agony. Unfortunately for him, this puts Kadet Isaak in position to free Dredd and have Kazan killed off by him.
- The Coup: He launched one against the ruling Diktatorat troika, having Sov Judges loyal to him placed as their bodyguards before making his move.
- Decapitated Army: Believes in this, looking to decapitate Mega-City One by going after Dredd and the Chief Judge, calling the rest "mere feathers of a chicken." Ultimately ends up falling victim to it himself, with the rest of his forces surrendering upon his death.
- Dragon Ascendant: War Marshal Kazan end up as the leader of East Meg One during the Apocalypse War by usurping the Diktatorat, swiftly becoming the Big Bad of the Apocalypse War storyline.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Implied. Kazan occasionally mentions his Siberian clone-mother and had sworn in her name to get things done. As nothing is revealed about his relationship with her beyond that nothing could be ascertained about their exact relationship.
- Frontline General: Commands the war against Mega City One on the spot, usually in his own command Strato-V.
- Hate Sink: He remained the most horrible Supreme Judge of East Meg One, being a brutal warmonger with no loyalty to his superiors or subordinates.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His Ax-Crazy warmongering and Bad Boss tendencies ends up turning his subordinates against him. He also puts the captured Dredd and his squad in his command Strato-V to be tortured for the rest of their lives for nuking East Meg One, which puts Dredd in a position to be freed and kill Kazan.
- Hypocrite: Calls out the Diktatorat for mistreatment of him by taking credit in the comfort of their bunkers while he all the dirty work on the front lines, yet also horribly mistreats his own subordinates while commanding his troops in the comfort of his Strato-V.
- I Can Rule Alone: War Marshal Kazan has arranged to assassinate the Diktatorat of East Meg One to seize power. When his bosses try to grovel their way out of their execution by offering him a seat on the council, Kazan scoffs and sneers "I AM the Diktatorat!"
- I Am the Noun: Rejects an offer of a seat on the Diktatorat, and sneers "I AM the Diktatorat!"
- I Regret Nothing: At the end of the "Apocalypse War" story arc, the last words of the defeated Kazan is to make it clear this is how he sees all his atrocities and actions.Kazan: I... regret nothing! I apologise for... nothing!
- Insane Admiral: There's a reason his Red Baron is "Mad Dog".
- Meaningful Name: Kazan means 'Boiler' or 'Couldron' in Tartar or Turkic, fittingly for a brutal warmonger with a volcanic temperament like him.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He calls out the Diktatorat for using him to fight their wars for them while they take shelter in their bunker right before he has them shot. Ironically, his own Bad Boss tendencies ends up getting him killed at the end by his own men, who let Dredd out of captivity to execute him.
- Red Baron: He's often known as the Mad Dog, and for good reason.
- The Starscream: He manages to rise to the rank of Supreme Judge by killing off all of his commanding officers and seizing control of the East Meg One Judge Department.
- Villainous BSoD: Briefly sits in horrified Stunned Silence in his command vehicle after receiving word that East Meg One had been nuked off the map.
- Villain Has a Point: As despicable as Kazan is, he is not wrong in accusing the Diktatorat of being cowardly parasites, sitting comfortably in the Kremlin plotting while sending out their men to fight and die on their behalf and having the likes of Kazan do all their dirty work and claiming credit for their success.
- Warhawk: An Ax-Crazy warmonger, Kazan prosecutes the Apocalypse War with absolute ruthlessness and relentlessness bordering on insanity, and sought to continue the war even after Dredd and his squad nukes East Meg One off the map and there was simply no point nor way the surviving East Meg forces can continue the conflict.
- You Have Failed Me: He repeatedly sends his subordinates to Siberia or straight up executing them on the spot for even the most minor failures. Only his second-in-command Isaak is spared the worst of his punishments owing to his association with him, and even then he's not completely spared, being demoted repeatedly and eventually forced to play Russian Roulette with an antique revolver as his punishment after he gets blamed for Dredd escaping his Kazan's traps and also for Dredd nuking East Meg One.
Kadet Isaak
A subordinate of War Marshal Kazan, Isaak attempts to serve his commander the best he can, especially in East Meg forces' attempts to kill or capture Judge Dredd. Circumstances and Dredd's persistence repeatedly cause setbacks which Isaak is blamed for, earning him Kazan's ire.
- The Dog Bites Back: When Kazan finally pushes Isaak too far, he freed Dredd and his squad from the torture machines they were put in after they were captured for nuking East Meg One and gives Dredd a weapon, wanting and helping him to kill Kazan and end the Apocalypse War.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being an East Meg Judge who served Kazan loyally at first and help facilitated East Meg One's invasion of Mega City One, his and his fellow Judges' mistreatment by Kazan and the Mad Dog's insane determination to continue the war even after East Meg One is nuked off the map eventually causes him to turn on Kazan and help Dredd kill him.
- Misblamed: Isaak is repeatedly demoted and otherwise punished for Dredd repeatedly escaping Kazan's traps and allowing Dredd to continue fighting and leading the resistance against East Meg One (culminating in nuking it off the map), despite not all of them being his fault. Half the time it was due to circumstances beyond his control, like other East Meg forces' ineptitude, sheer dumb luck, and Dredd being Dredd.
- Undying Loyalty: Despite his mistreatment by Kazan and East Meg One having ceased to exist by this point, he still considers himself an East Meg judge and cannot bring himself to personally turn on his war marshal, even to save his own life from eventual death by Russian Roulette and to end the Apocalypse War. This is why he freed Dredd and the Apocalypse Squad towards the end of the storyline after they were captured and put to torture for nuking East Meg One, since a Mega City One Judge like Dredd would have no problems putting down Kazan.Isaak: You must understand. I fear him - I HATE him - But I am still an East Meg Judge - and he is still my war marshal. I can point the gun, but I could never pull the trigger!
- Russian Roulette: Forced to play this every day by Kazan after being blamed for Dredd and his squad of hand-picked Judges successfully took control of a East Meg One missile silo and nuking East Meg One off the map, simply for no reason other than to prolong his suffering before he inevitably gets unlucky. This and Kazan's insane determination to continue the Apocalypse War finally pushes him to turn on his commander.
- Take a Third Option: Despite his fear and hatred of Kazan and the need to end the Apocalypse War, Isaak's sense of duty as an East Meg Judge prevents him from killing Kazan himself. A captured Dredd who had been imprisoned aboard Kazan's command vessel, on the other hand...
Yevgeny Borisenko
A Colonel in the East Meg intelligence services, Borisenko was blinded in the nuking of East Meg One and swore revenge, enacting a plot through his Fourth Faction to orchestrate the events of Chaos Day.
- Best Served Cold: He spends thirty years after the Apocalypse War planning his revenge on Mega City One, finally succeeding in wiping out 7/8ths of the city's population with the Chaos Bug.
- The Chessmaster: Borisenko not only plans to bring down Mega City One, but also arranges for himself to be murdered in custody so he can't be interrogated.
- Renegade Russian: East Meg One's regime was split officially into three factions after the Apocalypse War. Borisenko's Fourth Faction worked away from the others in order to take revenge.
- The Spymaster: He worked in the background, directing agents to infiltrate Mega City One and using them as vectors to spread the Chaos Bug.
