Fired Russian general Vladimir Makarov dies in apparent suicide: report

A senior Russian general has died of an apparent suicide in a Moscow suburb early Monday, just weeks after he was reportedly sacked by President Vladimir Putin.

Russian Ministry of the Interior Maj. Gen. Vladimir Makarov, 72, was found dead in the village of Golikovo, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Makarov’s wife, Valentina, found her husband with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to Russian-language news outlet SOTA.

The couple’s adult son summoned an ambulance to the home, but the general could not be saved.

Unconfirmed reports alleged that the general had fallen into a “deep depression” after being terminated by Putin.

Relatives were quoted as saying that Makarov did not know “what to do with himself” in his forced retirement.

During a former stint as the deputy head of the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism, Makarov reportedly persecuted opposition activists and independent journalists. 

Russian authorities use the term “extremist” to describe a variety of opposition groups — such as jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation — or media that have been banned from organizing anti-government protests or distributing information deemed detrimental to the state, Reuters reported.

Several high-ranking Russians and magnates have died under mysterious circumstances in recent months.

In November, Col. Vadim Boiko, 44, deputy head of the Makarov Pacific Higher Naval School in Vladivostok, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in what has been described as a suicide.

Boiko, who played a role in Putin’s partial mobilization efforts, “executed” himself with five gunshots to the chest in his commander’s office after allegedly being set up to take the fall for some of the problems plaguing the invasion of Ukraine, according to his widow.

In December, sausage tycoon Pavel Antov, who criticized the invasion of Ukraine, plunged to his death from a luxury hotel in India — three days after his friend lost his life on the same trip.