Status: 18.08.2023, 19:59 p.m.
By: Marcus Giebel
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Gennady Lopirev, another former confidant of Vladimir Putin, dies under mysterious circumstances. The symptoms are reminiscent of Alexei Navalny.
Ryazan – Another death from Vladimir Putin's circle is a mystery. According to several media outlets, including the Daily Mail from the UK and Newsweek from the US, Gennady Lopirev, a former lieutenant general and Kremlin bodyguard, died. He had been behind bars since 2017, was 69 years old and apparently had no health impairments before he complained of breathing difficulties this week – the exact date contradicts the reports – and could not be saved despite being admitted to a hospital.
Ex-bodyguard of Putin dead: in prison since 2017 on bribery charges
Apparently, he was diagnosed with a previously undiagnosed leukemia disease. Viktor Boborykin of the Public Monitoring Commission is quoted as saying, according to which Lopirev did not fall victim to any crime. The deceased spent the last years of his life in a penal colony near the city of Ryazan, which is located about 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
On charges of bribery and illegal possession of ammunition, which he always denied, Lopirev had been sentenced to ten years in prison by a military court. However, he is said to have already prepared an application to be able to spend the rest of the sentence on probation.
His last moments of freedom: Gennady Lopirev was indicted on bribery charges at the end of 2016. (Archive image) © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Symptoms like Navalny's: Ex-FSB man Lopirev dies after a few hours in intensive care
The usually well-informed Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU of an investigative team wrote that Lopirev had only been diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmias during his time in prison. He walked 15 kilometers a day and did gymnastics regularly. The sudden symptoms of breathing difficulties and hoarseness are the same as those described by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny when an attempt was made to poison him.
In the first hospital in nearby Skopin, the doctors were not able to make a diagnosis. He was then taken to the Ryazan Regional Hospital, where leukemia was unexpectedly diagnosed. In the evening, Lopirev was transferred to the intensive care unit, where he died. "It is curious that such a serious disease was not detected earlier, and the patient died so quickly," it says. In addition, the ECG and CT examination did not reveal any abnormalities.
The U.S.-based Ukrainian blogger and former journalist Viktor Kovalenko wrote on Twitter about Lopirev that he had been the person responsible for the Russian secret service FSB for the North Caucasus region in the 13 years before his imprisonment. At the same time, he referred to the incidents surrounding the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, "when FSB agents were caught peeing in test containers of Russian athletes and threatening laboratory workers to falsify the doping tests."
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Lopirev and Putin: Deceased ex-bodyguard oversaw construction of palace near Sochi
In other media, in view of Lopirev's death, another episode from his life is discussed. As a former head of the security service in the Caucasus at the Federal Service for Guarding the Russian Federation (FSO), he was responsible for the security of Putin and his government members. This also applies to the security of state institutions in the south of Russia.
In this context, Lopirev also oversaw the construction of a palace near Sochi – it was precisely this building that the team led by Navalny, who was also imprisoned, attributed to Putin after extensive research. The building on the Black Sea, around which the documentary "A Palace for Putin" revolves, is said to contain a 16-storey underground complex containing a fallout shelter, but also a loggia and a huge wine cellar. The cost of the entire property, which is said to be almost 40 times the size of the Principality of Monaco, is estimated at 1.3 billion euros.
Looking up: Does Vladimir Putin also think about the many ex-companions who died in such moments? © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
This week, news of the death of Gennady Zhidko, a colonel-general and former Russian deputy defense minister, also spread. He was 57 years old and headed the Russian associations in the Ukraine war for a few months from the end of May 2022. Zhidko officially died after a long illness, according to Russian journalist Dmitry Koledev, known for his independent reports, it was cancer. (mg)