Crazy Ivan

"Don't play with matches!"

- Crazy Ivan

"Crazy Ivan" is a codename give to various Soviet explosives experts employed during Third World War and the Psychic Dominator Disaster. Given an unlimited amount of TNTs to work with, they can cause considerable destruction if they get close enough to strap bombs to their targets.

Background
These skilled, obsessed and insane bombers were shown to have quite a liberal attitude to their art, and they are able to strap bombs to nearly anything: they were seen strapping bombs to enemies, strapping them to their own soldiers (presumably so the soldier could charge forward into the Allied lines when the bomb went off), and they were even seen putting bombs on passing cows. They apparently gained immense pleasure from the sound of an explosion.

During the Psychic Dominator Disaster, the bombs entrusted to these psychopaths were improved enough to destroy war factories and ore refineries, making them much more valuable.

Crazy Ivans were not known to be employed during War of the Three Powers. Presumably, the Soviet leadership consider them too dangerous.

Carville's Assassination
General Carville had just finished briefing the Allied Commander before he was sent to the Black Forest. Carville told him that he was heading to Berlin to plan an invasion of Moscow with the German Chancellor and Allied leaders. However, as he opened the door of his quarters, an assassin was waiting for him with some TNT explosives. Carville kept well back to his desk and told the Commander to go as he dealt with the attacker, but the assassin blew his charges along with his victim at his office at the Pentagon.

Strategies
Crazy Ivans can strap a bomb to anything, including their own forces. Russian commanders with large sums of cash can use attack dogs produced in massive numbers as suicide bombers - once close to a base, Crazy Ivans would place bombs on about 1-3 attack dogs and send the dogs to rush the target. Dogs without explosives can be used for cover. Make sure you have plenty of reinforcement dogs to replace dogs used.

They can also demolish bridges in a similar fashion to that of the Navy SEALs. The only unit type that they prefer to keep undamaged are transports. Flak tracks are the best solution for quickly transporting Crazy Ivans across the battlefield, best accompanied by other vehicles.

Additionally, packed into Allied IFVs, they turn them into a mini nuke truck.

Counters
"I lost a bomb... Do you have it?"

- Crazy Ivan "misplacing" one of his devices

The best defense against Crazy Ivans is to ensure that all entrances to a base were guarded (to prevent them from sneaking into the base). Pill boxes are a cheap solution for this, as they can gun down Crazy Ivans before they get close enough to do any damage. Engineers can defuse the Crazy Ivan's bombs.

As their weapons are only effective at melee-range, any unit with anti-personnel weapons can easily shoot them down (and watch them explode in a spectacular manner) before they got too close.

Pros

 * Highly destructive against buildings.
 * Able to strap bombs to literally anything.
 * Can destroy bridges.

Cons

 * Pill boxes can gun down Crazy Ivans before they get close enough to do any damage
 * Engineers can defuse the Crazy Ivan's bombs
 * Anti-infantry units can kill them easily
 * Cannot target aircraft.
 * Explodes when killed (though this can be an advantage if one was to use it as a suicide unit).

Behind the Scenes
The Crazy Ivan are voiced by Neil Ross, who also voiced the Kirov airship and British taunts in multiplayer.

Trivia

 * Crazy Ivan itself is a naval designation referring to a particular submarine maneuver. As Red Alert is a parody of the Cold War, it is likely the developers appropriated the phrase to suit their needs.
 * There is some debate as to whether a Crazy Ivan or terrorist was responsible for assassinating General Carville during the Third World War; the assassin detonated explosives attached to himself, which supports the Cuban terrorist theory. However, Lieutenant Eva identifies the attacker, and their use elsewhere, as Crazy Ivans.
 * Whenever a Crazy Ivan is killed, he will violently explode leaving a skull-shaped cloud behind. The unit's own death animation consists in its body parts scattered through the area, a somewhat gory and violent death animation for RA2. Because of this, it can be assumed that the fact that the explosion cloud covers most of the animation could have been a measure by Westwood to avoid real-life censorship and rating changes for RA2.