Ace Attorney Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Bif Strogenov
Image Gallery Sprite Gallery
This article contains information about Ace Attorney media that has been
recently released and thus likely contains spoilers!
Steel Samurai
The information in this article comes from a game, demo, or other media that has been recently released worldwide. This article may need input from an editor who has personal experience with the media in question. If you have, you can help the Ace Attorney Wiki by expanding this article. Please heed the manual of style when adding information.

Readers of this page should be aware that this article likely contains MAJOR SPOILERS concerning the media in question.

You have been warned!

Bif Strogenov
Next time I have to throw you out, I show you where lobsters spend winter! Understand?

Bif Strogenov was a senior crewman onboard the SS Burya. He was working on the ship during a trip from Japan to the United Kingdom, when an incident occurred involving Kazuma Asogi. He had a pet snake named Pirozhko on board, despite the strict no pet policy, and placed a mouse trap in the first-class cabin passageway to collect rodents for the reptile to eat.

The "angel"[]

Main article: The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band

Strogenov's crew included a young dancer by the name of Nikolina Pavlova, who was eventually recruited into Novavich Ballet. However, she ran away during a performance in Shanghai, China, arranging with the crew of the Burya to pick her up and take her to the United Kingdom. The crew laced that night's chicken dinner with sleeping drugs. Because of this, very few passengers were awake when the ship made an emergency stop and a crew member took Pavlova to the ship, where she was placed in first-class cabin 002.

Some hours later, Strogenov heard Pavlova cry out, followed by a thud on the floor. He found Pavlova at the door of cabin 001, pleading with him to help her. Strogenov saw the cabin's occupant, a Japanese student by the name of Kazuma Asogi, seemingly dead, and helped to cover up her deed by arranging the crime scene to implicate Ryunosuke Naruhodo, a Japanese stowaway they discovered hiding in the wardrobe. This seemed to work, as even the famous detective Herlock Sholmes, who was also on board the ship, fell for the trick and implicated Naruhodo.

Under the watch of a suspicious Susato Mikotoba, Naruhodo began investigating the Burya in an attempt to clear his name, and soon encountered Strogenov guarding the door to the second class cabin area. The Russian told them not to enter the first class cabin where Pavlova was secretly hiding, lying that a passenger called "Grimesby Roylott" (a disguised Pavlova) was staying there and did not wish to be disturbed. He also lied to them that "Roylott" had no relation to the case and that he himself had not seen anything suspicious at the time of Asogi's death.

After Strogenov left to see that ship captain, Sholmes proceeded to kick down the locked door to Pavlova's room after hearing a woman's scream (which later turned out to be Pavlova reacting to a newspaper article about her escape from Russia). Although Naruhodo attempted to ask "Roylott" some questions about the murder, Strogenov returned and took the disguised Pavlova away to see the captain, before guarding the entrance to her cabin.

Strogonav band

With Pirozhko wrapped around his head.

However, despite his best efforts, Naruhodo figured out that "Roylott" was Pavlova in disguise after managing to sneak back inside her cabin. Strogenov and Pavlova both demanded that Naruhodo be arrested for Asogi's murder, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Pirozhko, who proceeded to wrap himself around Strogenov's head. Seeing this, Sholmes immediately accused the snake of being the true culprit of Asogi's death, but was soon persuaded otherwise after Naruhodo gently corrected his faulty reasoning and Strogenov revealed Pirozhko's harmless nature.

Naruhodo then began to accuse Pavlova of being the true culprit, which Strogenov attempted to refute by pointing out that Naruhodo had seemingly been the only one in the locked room when Asogi was killed. Naruhodo responded to this by showing Stroganov the blank pages of the voyage log he had discovered, which indicated that something had been deliberately kept hidden on the night of the murder, despite the sailor previously stating that nothing unusual had happened then.

After Naruhodo experienced a headache and remembered that Asogi disliked chicken and thus would not have eaten the chicken dinner served to the passengers, Strogenov admitted that he had drugged the food on that night. He also admitted that he had deliberately shut the latch to Asogi's cabin via an emergency stop to divert suspicion away from Pavlova.

Pavlova eventually tearfully admitted her guilt and was arrested by Satoru Hosonaga in order to be handed over to Scotland Yard, with Strogenov declaring that he would also hand himself over the authorities once they reached England for his part in the cover-up.

Personality[]

Bif Strogenov
You like to speak with your long English words and explain your clever ideas. But I am sailor. And sailors don't listen to long, boring stories. We don't believe. Sailors like me, we trust only what we see with our own eyes.
Mitrov Stroganov mugshot

Mugshot.

Throughout the day after the incident with Asogi, Strogenov came off as a very intimidating, blunt, and easily-angered man. However, as Sholmes and Naruhodo uncovered more of what had really happened, he became more serious, until Pavlova's confession, at which point he felt guilty for his actions, to the point of turning himself in as an accomplice.

He is very protective of those he cares about, such as Pavlova and Pirozhko.

Name[]

  • His Japanese given name "Mitrov" is a play on meatloaf.
  • His English given name "Bif" is likely a play on "beef".
  • His Japanese and English surnames are references to beef stroganoff, a Russian dish.

Unofficial

  • Russian - Boris Shlikov
    • The name "Boris" is a real Russian name, which can be considered one of the most stereotypical Russian names.
    • His name and surname together are a pun on the word "borscht" - the most famous Slavic dish.

Notes[]

  1. Strogenov's situation is unusual because he does not confess to wrongdoing in a courtroom or police investigation setting, but he is marked as "arrested" because the main difference from a typical arrested status is who he confessed to first, the presumed result being the same afterward.
Advertisement