Simon Brezhnev

Samia "Simon" Brezhnev (サイモン・ブレジネフ, Saimon Burejinefu) is one of the supporting characters of the light novel, Durarara. He is one of the owners of Russia Sushi. He is known as one of the strongest men in Ikebukuro; according to Izaya Orihara, if it was just a fist fight, Simon would be the strongest, although Shizuo Heiwajima would be the strongest if "anything goes."

Characteristics
Simon is a large black man born in Russia. His most notable features are his size, towering over all the people who pass him in the street, and his bizarre accent, which seems to be exaggerated. He is most often seen standing outside Russia Sushi handing out pamphlets and trying to attract customers, although his appearance and manner of speaking usually scares people away.

Simon is a pacifist, and has a very gentle, friendly manner. He often tries to stop fights, or convince people to abandon their conflicts, often appearing before distraught characters and telling them to eat sushi to satisfy their hunger and calm themselves down. This is most likely due to his past in the Soviet Union; he came from a cruel world, into the relative peace of Ikebukuro, and he believes that young people in Japan should not have to fight and die like they do in Russia. Despite appearing simple in his normal, day-to-day life, Simon is shown to have a lot more to his character that he doesn't show. When talking to Izaya Orihara about his antics in the city, he usually speaks in Russian to avoid others hearing what he is talking about and being frightened.

Simon is also quite strong, often showing up to stop Shizuo Heiwajima when he goes on destructive rampages. He once jumped off the top of a tall building to catch a vending machine that Shizuo hurled at a fleeing Orihara Izaya, although he has been shown to hold his own when Shizuo takes out his anger on him.

Background
Simon and Dennis, the current owner of Russia Sushi, used to work together in the Soviet special forces, until the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving them out of a job. Dennis later migrated to Ikebukuro and opened up Russia Sushi; Simon later followed to help him out. His real name is Semyon but everyone just calls him by the name, "Simon".

Despite the fact that he usually scares customers away, Simon is known to be a great sushi chef who makes good sushi, and Russia Sushi is known as a good place to go to resolve conflict; Masaomi Kida and Kyohei Kadota went to Russia Sushi to discuss the upcoming Yellow Scarves vs. Dollars war, and whether or not the Slasher was part of the Dollars, and Saki Mikajima called Russia Sushi to tell them about what Orihara Izaya was up to, since "she didn't know who else to go to."

Simon and Dennis also often try to break up fights, either physically, as is usually the case when Shizuo is involved, or by stopping them before they start, for example when they purposely sold bad sushi to Masaomi Kida and Kadota's group when they were discussing war. Dennis even went as far as throwing a knife into the wall, barely missing his customers.

Simon is a member of the Dollars, and seems to be a good friend of Shizuo, despite the occasional fight.