A Vladimir Putin’s former security guard who in the past moved the Kremlin’s nuclear briefcase was found shot in the head in his apartment near Moscow and is in serious condition, according to international press reports.
The retired colonel of the Federal Security Service Vadim Zimin, 53, is in serious condition, admitted to intensive care, says the British newspaper ‘The Mirror’.
Zimin had been in charge of the briefcase with Russian nuclear controls during the management of former President Boris Yeltsin. (1991-1999). He then continued to work as a colonel during Putin’s tenure, but his role at the time remains unclear.
The former bodyguard was found by his brother in the kitchen of his apartment in Krasnogorsk, Moscow region, in a pool of blood and with a gunshot wound to the head. An Izh 79-9TM pistol, also called “Makarych”, was nearby.
According to reports, the brother was in the bathroom at the time of the shooting.
The former presidential bodyguard faced a criminal investigation for accepting bribes in the customs service, where he had a hierarchical position, according to the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. He was serving a sentence under house arrest for the case.
(Also read: Russia massively bombs the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk).
Zimin’s wife is a doctor and is currently on duty treating the war-wounded in Ukraine.
Although people normally speak of “the nuclear briefcase”, there are actually three “cheguets” (as they are called in Russian) that exist in that country. One accompanies the Russian president everywhere, and the other two are carried by the Defense Minister and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in this case, Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov. At least two of the three have to activate the codes to launch a nuclear attack, and one of them must necessarily be the president.
All three cheguets are similar. They weigh about 11 kilos and, in addition to a telephone, they have a terminal with numerous encrypted codes, connected to the special telecommunications system reserved for nuclear emergencies, called Kavkaz.
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