A former Russian air commander and his wife were found dead in the Stavropol region’s village of Adzhievsky.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Sviridov, 68, and his wife Tatyana, 72, were reportedly dead for about a week before their bodies were discovered on November 15, 2023. Sviridov had previously criticised President Vladimir Putin for leading a “third-rate” air force.
“The cause of Vladimir and Tatyana Sviridov’s deaths is still unknown, but gas service workers have already taken measurements, and no excess of the allowable concentration of harmful substances has been detected,” the Baza Russian Telegram channel stated.
He was awarded the Order of the Red Star, a number of medals, and the title of Honorary Pilot of Russia in 2005. Before resigning, he voiced his disapproval of the way Russia’s armed forces were run, citing low pay, subpar living conditions, and inadequate training of Russian pilots.
’’A pilot needs roughly 100 hours of flight time annually to be fully combat ready, but sadly, now the average flight time in the army is currently 25–30 hours, one in two of our officers lacks accommodations, and 10% of the young officers are making every effort to retire early,’’ Sviridov said.
He also noted that officers who were not fully trained were being appointed and sent to military academies as third-ranking pilots.
Russia has experienced a wave of inexplicable fatalities, many of which have been connected to the energy industry. This is not the first mysterious, high-profile death since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine.
In February, FSB Major Gen. Vladimir Makarov was found shot dead at his home near Moscow in an apparent suicide after being sacked by Putin.
Earlier this year, a military commander who momentarily oversaw the invasion of Ukraine was also discovered dead at the age of 58, and a Russian general who was aware of the details of the dictator’s £1 billion castle was discovered dead in prison.
The strange death of multimillionaire Russian MP Nikolay Bortsov, 77, who had ties to the UK, coincided with the death of fellow politician Dzhasharbek Uzdenov, 56.
The most current deaths are of the prominent mercenary leader of the Wagner group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, who died alongside his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, 53, in a plane crash in August 2023.
Concerning the Russian businesspeople found dead over the past two years, there is a Wikipedia page devoted to the subject. Many of the deaths of individuals associated with Putin have occurred under peculiar circumstances, such as falls from windows, random shootings, helicopter crashes, and mysterious suicides.
