Several hours after killing General Shepherd, Price and Nikolai evacuate critically wounded Soap to a Russian loyalist safe-house in Himachal Pradesh, Northern India, but soon discover that the ultranationalist terrorist from the previous game Makarov has sent forces out to their position to kill them. Yuri, an ex-Spetsnaz operative with a common grudge against Makarov, assists them in providing a safe extraction from the region. Meanwhile, the war between Russia and the United States concludes when a Delta Force team, call-signed Metal, manages to blow up the Russian broad spectrum jamming tower on top of the Wall Street Stock Exchange, allowing US forces to consolidate and launch a coordinated ground attack. As the Russians forces lose ground, Metal joins forces with a SEAL team to raid an Oscar-class submarine acting as the Russian flagship, successfully capturing the submarine's bridge and redirecting its entire payload of missiles to target the Russian fleet, successfully repelling Russian Forces in New York City and forcing an emergency withdrawal from the East Coast. Two months later, Makarov stages a coup d'état by hijacking a plane en route to Hamburg containing the Russian President, Boris Vorshevsky, to derail Vorshevsky's plans of negotiating a peace treaty with the United States. In the midst of the plane crashing, members of the F.S.O. attempt to secure Vorshevsky, but are killed by Makarov and his men when they attempt extraction by helicopter. Makarov reveals his plans to the president for Russia's future - he intends to have Russia control the whole of Europe, using the country's nuclear arsenal as a show of force. Vorshevsky refuses to give over the nuclear launch codes, leaving Makarov no choice but to locate his weakness: Vorshevsky's daughter, Alena. To ensure his plan succeeds, Makarov has chemical bombs transported from Sierra Leone into Europe, where they are planted into every major city in NATO affiliated countries on the continent, detonating them, despite the efforts of an SAS team trying to prevent this from happening in London. The attacks cripple the intelligence networks and special forces bases in Europe, including the GIGN barracks at Satory and the American Ramstein base in Germany, allowing the Russians to invade much of the continent, which in turn prompts the U.S. to send in forces to counter-attack the invasion. During this, Price's team get a lead from his former commanding officer leading them to Somalia, and learn through torturing the leader of a terrorist group the identity of the bomb maker as Volk, the CEO of Fregata Industries, who transported the bombs. Metal receives his location from Price shortly afterwards, and manage to capture and extract him from Paris with the help of GIGN and other U.S. forces, though the battle in Paris causes the Eiffel Tower to collapse. Metal sends info to Price's team on Makarov's location, leading them to Prague. With the assistance of loyalist Russian forces and Czech Republic partisans, Price's team attempts to assassinate Makarov; however, Makarov knows of this and thwarts the attempt, attempting to kill Price and his men. Soap is mortally wounded as a result, but not before he hears Makarov mention that Yuri knows him well. Soap passes on what Makarov told him before succumbing to his wounds despite efforts by Price to get him medical attention. Price, still enraged over Soap's death, punches Yuri, causing Yuri to fall down a flight of stairs to the basement and forces Yuri, at gunpoint, to reveal what Makarov meant. Yuri reveals that he was a former ultra-nationalist who worked alongside Makarov during the arms deal in Pripyat when they helped evacuate Imran Zakhaev after the assassination attempt on him and later became Makarov's right-hand man. Although Yuri thought he was following a good cause, the detonation of a nuclear device in the Middle East sickened him, leading him into an attempt at stopping the airport massacre in Moscow by alerting the local authorities but Makarov, aware of his actions, shot him and left him for dead in the lower parking lot. Yuri somehow survived the gunshot wound and crawled into an elevator leading to the main lobby of the airport, where Makarov and his men have begun their massacre. Yuri uses a dead guard's pistol in an attempt to kill Makarov but fell unconscious due to his wounds. He was eventually found by the arriving emergency authorities. Yuri's guilt-ridden vengeance barely convinces Price in maintaining their alliance..