Zangief (Зангиев) is a video game character created by Capcom. He is part of the Street Fighter series of fighting games.

According to his official biography, Zangief was born in the Soviet Union on June 1, 1956. He stands 214 cm tall (a little over 7' 0") and weighs 121 kg. His blood type is A. He likes to wrestle bears and dance the Cossack dance. His fighting style is an advanced form of sambo.

Zangief is a close-combat character. Because of his move repertoire and the way his special moves are executed, he and other characters with similar movesets are known as 360°-grapplers.

Background

As Russia's greatest professional wrestler, Zangief was contacted by Mikhail Gorbachev to demonstrate Russia's strength to the rest of the world in the second World Warrior tournament. Zangief patriotically agrees and receives fantastic training in the extreme climate of Siberia, that lets him, with this government sponsorship, become "the Red Cyclone." He opposes the activities of Shadaloo and meets one of his fans, the Japanese pro wrestler Rainbow Mika Nanakawa.

Zangief wrestles polar bears in Siberia, on which he practiced his trademark spinning piledriver. His chief rival in the wrestling world is american Mike Haggar , who copied his "Spinning Piledriver". In return, Zangief copied Haggar's "Spinning Clothesline". Zangief probably trained with Aleksay Zalazoff (Biff Slamkovich from Saturday Night Slam Masters ).

The theory of Zangief being gay was finally cleared by the ending of the newest Capcom fighting game, Capcom Fighting Evolution. There he is shown dreaming of being with his girlfriend in California and sitting in a jacuzzi with three almost naked girls.