GTA IV Co-op Mission Russian Mobster Character

[aquamop15]

I have a huge question having to do with whatever storyline GTA IV Multiplayer had as it connects to a thread I made but it still eludes me.

In GTA IV Multiplayer, there were modes called Mafiya Work and Team Mafiya Work, Car Jack and Team Car Jack where the Customizable Character you play as is working for Kenny Petrovic, leader of the Petrovic Russian Mob, doing jobs for him and stealing cars constantly. You played as your own personalized Character.

However, there were also 3 Co-Op Missions where you once again work for Kenny Petrovic in all 3 - They are Deal Breaker, Hangman's NOOSE, and Bomb Da Base II. In these missions though, you do not get to play as your Personalized Customized Character, but rather you were forced to play as a randomized Russian Mobster with a Russian voice to boot. Is this because Rockstar wasn't able to implement our Customized Character into a cutscene at the time or did they intentionally make us play as a Russian Mobster with no name? Would this "generic" Russian Mobster be considered a different Protagonist altogether, consider these missions do have a plot with a Character that you play as that Kenny Petrovic seems to personally know well, taking him out for drinks after Hangman's NOOSE and such?

[Jimbatron]

The Russian Mobster models don't have special cut scene variants (unlike some of the single player characters, to facilitate more advanced animations), so I don't think that has anything to do with it. I think it's more TMW and TCJC are jobs for guns for hire, HMN, BDB2 and DB are special missions where Petrovic would use his trusted guys - hence it feels right for them to be Russians.