Russian mobster Vlad Koslov kidnapped Cassandra Foster, the adoptive daughter of Pine Valley residents Angie and Jesse Hubbard. Vlad and his brother, Uri, ran a sex trafficking ring in which they kidnapped young women and forced them to work in the sex trade industry. Uri was in charge of the overall operation and delegated much of the direct work with the girls to his brother, including the selection of young women to abduct.

Vlad often disciplined the girls with physical violence if they were not compliant. Uri repeatedly chastised Vlad for marring the physical appearance of the young women, but he was extremely irate with Vlad after he realized that Cassandra's father was the chief of police in Pine Valley. Vlad claimed that he believed Cassandra to be a visitor to the United States and that he had not expected anyone to notice her disappearance. When the police started to close in on the Koslov operation, Uri killed his brother and burned the body beyond recognition. Then he used Vlad's body to fake his own death, but the police quickly realized that Vlad, not Uri, was deceased.