Russian general with details on 'Putin's £1 billion palace' dies in prison

James Hockaday
·2 min read
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General Gennady Lopyrev (left) became suddenly ill shortly after being eligible for parole. (Getty Images)
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An imprisoned Russian general who oversaw the building of Vladimir Putin's £1bn Black Sea palace has died in custody, shortly after becoming eligible for parole.

It is not clear exactly how 69-year-old Gennady Lopyrev died, but authorities have said he became ill on Monday before dying in the early hours of Tuesday.

The general was jailed in 2017 by a military court over charges of bribe-taking and illegal possession of ammunition – which he always denied.

He was not believed to have any previous medical conditions and was planning to apply for early release, according to Radio Free Europe.

Lopyrev was working as Putin's bodyguard when he was arrested, the Moscow Times reported, and also oversaw the construction of a number of state facilities in southern Russia.

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Moscow, Russia. 28th Dec, 2017. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates Major General Gennady Zhidko after awarding him the title of the Hero of the Russian Federation at the State Kremlin Palace December 28, 2017 in Moscow, Russia. Putin meet with service members and presented awards for their service in fighting the Islamic State in Syria. Credit: Planetpix/Alamy Live News
Major general Gennady Zhidko (left), pictured in 2017, also died this week after a 'long illness'. (Alamy Live News)

These included 'Putin's Palace', a huge complex along the Black Sea coast believed to be 39 times the size of Monaco.

Putin himself denies being its owner, but oligarch Arkady Rotenberg is alleged to be acting as a proxy owner on his behalf.

An investigation by opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation accused Putin of using fraudulently obtained funds to build the estate, which reportedly cost £1bn to erect.

The sudden death of Lopyrev, who was lieutenant general in the Federal Guards Service, raised suspicions of foul play, possibly poisoning, but Viktor Boborykin, of the Public Monitoring Commission, assured people "there was no crime".

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Moscow, Russia. 11th Aug, 2023. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts a videoconference meeting with permanent members of the Security Council from the Kremlin, August 11, 2023 in Moscow, Russia. Credit: Pavel Byrkin/Kremlin Pool/Alamy Live News
A number of high-profile oligarchs have died under mysterious circumstances since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. (Alamy Live News)

General Gennady Zhidko, who briefly commanded the Kremlin's troops in Ukraine before being ousted for "failures" on the battlefield, is another of Putin's old allies to die of an illness this week.

The commander died aged 57 in Moscow on Wednesday following a "long illness", a regional leader announced on Telegram.

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Zhidko briefly led the so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine from May 2022 before being booted "for failures during military operations", the BBC reported at the time.

He was replaced by Sergey Surovikin, an alleged ally of Wagner chief and mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was also eventually ousted and is now reportedly under house arrest, Politico reports.