Oleg Aleksandrovich Prudius (Russian: Oleg Aleksandrovich Prudius; Ukrainian: Oleg Oleksandrovich Prudius, Oleh Oleksandrovych Prudius; born April 27, 1979) better known by his ring name Vladimir Kozlov, is a Ukrainian-American producer and retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he won the WWE Tag Team Championship once with Santino Marella. He is trained in freestyle wrestling, rugby, football, sambo, kickboxing, judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts. Prudius has also worked as a stage and screen actor, notably having a small role in Spike Lee's 25th Hour., and a walk-on role in the second season of the HBO series The Wire.

On April 13, 2009, Kozlov was drafted to the ECW brand as part of the 2009 WWE draft, as ECW's only pick of the night. Shortly after the draft, his character was tweaked to further highlight the training he received within the Russian military. He won his first match on the brand when he easily defeated a local competitor. On the June 30 episode of ECW on Syfy, he teamed with William Regal to defeat Christian and Tommy Dreamer. His first defeat in singles competition on ECW came on the July 9 episode of ECW, where he lost a #1 contenders match to Christian for Tommy Dreamer's ECW Championship at Night of Champions.  On July 21, Kozlov began an angle with Ezekiel Jackson in which, week after week, after one of them had easily defeated a local competitor, the other would come out and execute their finishing move on the fallen opponent in a game of one-upmanship. On the August 18 episode of ECW, Jackson was set to team with ECW Champion Christian against the team of Kozlov and number-one contender William Regal. Jackson turned on Christian, forming an alliance with Regal and Kozlov. Kozlov and Jackson aided Regal in his feud with Christian over the ECW Championship, but Regal was unable to capture the title.  On the December 15 episode of ECW, Kozlov came out with Regal to face Jackson in an ECW Homecoming battle royal qualifying match. During the match, Regal turned on Kozlov by pulling his feet while at ringside, which ultimately cost him the match. After the match, Kozlov attempted to attack Regal, but Jackson jumped him from behind and both proceeded to attack Kozlov. This split Kozlov from the Ruthless Roundtable, making him a face character.

Ask a question about this article.
Was there anyone else of note involved?