Character Analysis
Vladimir is a cynical guy working at the foreign embassy, and he'll do whatever it takes to make the English police start cracking down on anyone who talks smack about the status quo in Europe. He hates the way England respects personal liberties and allows radicals to distribute their pamphlets freely. Yeah, those pamphlets sound real threatening. Get over yourself, Vlad. You're a jerk.
What's maybe most noteworthy about him, though, is Conrad's tendency to confuse his ethnic origins. He speaks perfect French, yet can shift into perfect, colloquial English "without the slightest trace of a foreign accent" (2.30). This chameleon-like quality seems to make him very well-suited to the world of espionage. When he gets really riled up, though, he takes on an accent that is "not only utterly un-English, but absolutely un-European" (2.68), which only makes him more mysterious.
During Conrad's time, calling a character un-European was basically a shorthand way for saying he was difficult to pin down. Even the name Vladimir suggests an Eastern European (more specifically, Russian) heritage, though it's unclear which embassy this man works for.
Vladimir is a man who truly hates people who pose any kind of challenge to the existing social order. He enjoys a lot of popularity in high society because of his "delicate witticisms" (2.68). Through him, though, Conrad is basically trashing the idea that fitting in with the upper classes somehow makes you a good person. At a later stage in the book, the secretary Toodles is even personally offended to find out that a member of the posh Explorers' Club (Vladimir) has been involved with some sort of criminal activity. Breaking news, Toodles: it's not only poor people who commit crimes.