Warning: spoilers for Stranger Things: Kamchatka #1 are ahead.
A Stranger Things tie-in by Dark Horse Comics has revealed Russia's version of Dr. Brenner. Netflix's Stranger Things may be fictional, but one aspect of the show is actually based on real life; the illegal projects conducted by Dr. Brenner. As far back as 1917, the newly-established USSR began working on mind-control weaponry, and the US responded in kind. In 1953, the CIA launched Project MKUltra, with often illegal experiments conducted at over 80 sites across the country.
Until Stranger Things season 3, the show had focused almost entirely on the American black ops and threats from the Upside-Down. Season 3 saw the Russians arriving at Hawkins, opening their own Gate to the Upside-Down and even managing to capture at least one Demogorgon. The Russian subplot will continue in Stranger Things season 4, with Hopper imprisoned at the Russian secret facility on the Kamchatka peninsula. Given that's the case, it had always seemed to be only a matter of time before the Russian equivalent of Dr. Brenner was introduced.
Stranger Things: Kamchatka by Michael Moreci, Todor Hristov, Dan Jackson, and Nate Piekos is centered upon the Russian version of Dr. Brenner and his family. Dr. Boris Orlov seems to be something of an expert on telekinesis, even inventing technology that he believes will amplify psychic powers. But where Dr. Brenner's focus was to unlock psychic powers to be used in espionage, Dr. Orlov theorized telekinesis was the way to unlock the multiverse. His studies clearly provide a pseudo-scientific basis for understanding how Eleven opened the Gate at Hawkins in the first place.
But Dr. Orlov is a better man than Dr. Brenner. The Kamchatka group recruited him to help them keep the Demogorgon alive, and he was immediately horrified, attempting to hide his prototype telekinetic enhancer from them because he feared the use it could be put to. It's taken by his children, who go on the run with it in the hopes of finding a way to get their father back. It's the kind of action the US scientist Dr. Brenner would never consider.
The Stranger Things: Kamchatka miniseries is clearly positioned as setup for season 4, so it's entirely possible Dr. Orlov will actually appear in the TV show - perhaps helping Hopper escape from the Kamchatka facility. Unfortunately that does seem unlikely, however, because the Soviet Union would consider him a traitor for trying to withhold his work from their scientists, meaning he probably won't survive to the end of the miniseries. It's more likely Dr. Orlov's legacy will lie in his theories, which will surely be built upon in Stranger Things season 4.
Stranger Things: Kamchatka #1 is available now from Dark Horse Comics.