Top Putin official involved in funding Ukraine war dies in apparent suicide
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A Russian defence official is the latest high-ranking figure to die in an apparent suicide in Russia after falling from a 16th floor apartment window.
Marina Yankina, 58, played an important role in funding Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine before her suspicious death.
Her body was found at the entrance to her high-rise building in Zamshina Street, St Petersburg, it was reported in Russia.
A preliminary investigation has concluded that Ms Yamkina died by suicide. She fell 160ft to her death after phoning her ex-husband and telling him she planned to kill herself.
Mash, a Russian news channel on messaging site Telegram, said she asked him to call police to her address. Ms Yankina was said to have been struggling with health problems. A full investigation into her death continues.
The office was head of the financial support department of the Ministry of Defence for the Western Military District, which is involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
She was previously an official in the tax service and a deputy chairman of the Property Relations Committee of St. Petersburg.
General took own life after being sacked by Putin
Earlier this week, a Russian general who led a crackdown on opposition activists shot himself in the head after being sacked by Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Makarov, 72, was found by his wife Valentina with gunshot wounds just weeks after he was fired by the Russian president in late January.
The major general had fallen into a “deep depression” and “didn’t know what to do with himself” after losing his job, relatives told Russian media.
Last summer, retired Federal Security Service Major General Yevgeny Lobachev and Foreign Intelligence Service Major General Lev Sotskov were found dead in what were reported to be two separate suicides.
Colonel Vadim Boiko, who was involved in Putin’s mobilisation of new recruits, was found dead with gunshot wounds in a suspected suicide in November.
His widow said he “executed” himself with five gunshots in the chests after allegedly being blamed for some of the problems plaguing Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
