Former FSB general found dead in Moscow

Retired FSB Major General Igor Laptev has ended his life in Moscow, Russian media report. The body of the 83-year-old man was discovered on the afternoon of August 20 at his home on "Verkhnyaya Krasnoselskaya" Street.

"The body of a man with a gunshot wound to the head was found in his study," a source told the "Sovershenno Sekretno" publication.

Laptev participated in the military operations in Afghanistan. Afterward, he served for years in the KGB and FSB, where he was responsible for issues related to information security. In the late 1990s, he served as Deputy Minister of Taxes and Duties.

From 1998, Laptev headed the board of directors of ZAO "Informtekhnika i Svyaz" – a company specializing in the development and production of integrated secure professional communication systems for government and corporate structures.

A series of suicides among generals

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there has been a series of reported suicides among generals from Russian security services, The Moscow Times recalls.

In May, 87-year-old Colonel General Stanislav Petrov, former head of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, died in Moscow. His body was found in his apartment at the House on the Embankment.

According to RBK, Petrov participated in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident and had been seriously ill. The "Gazeta.Ru" publication reported a possible version of suicide.

In February 2023, 72-year-old Police Major General Vladimir Makarov was found dead in the Moscow region. He was the deputy head of the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Interior Ministry and had been dismissed from his post shortly before his death due to reaching retirement age.

TASS reported that Makarov had ended his life.

In July 2022, retired FSB Major General Yevgeny Lobachev died in Moscow. His body was found on a stairwell in an apartment building on "Kachalinskaya" Street. Lobachev was 76 years old.

As TASS reported, citing law enforcement agencies, the cause of his death was suicide.

A month earlier, 90-year-old retired SVR Major General Lev Sotskov was found dead in Moscow. RBK reported that Sotskov's body was discovered in his apartment on "Novatorov" Street. His service pistol was found next to him.