Another Russian Official Dies After Falling From Window

An employee of the Russian Defense Ministry has been found dead after apparently falling from a high-rise apartment building in St. Petersburg in the latest mysterious death of a senior official. Marina Yankina, 58, was the head of finance and procurement of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Western Military District.

The report of her death on February 16 comes just days after Major General Vladimir Makarov — who was recently fired by Russian President Vladimir Putin — was found dead in a suspected suicide outside of Moscow.

The fall is the latest in a series of high profile Russians who died after falling from windows.

Former Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, awakened late last year from a coma following a mysterious fall, according to Russian media.

Karpov was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured leg after falling under curious circumstances. Now that he has awakened from the coma, he may be able to shed light himself on what happened.

Media reports quoted Karpov’s daughter, Sofia, on October 31 as saying that the 71-year-old former world champion, who is a lawmaker representing the ruling United Russia party, had accidentally fallen near the parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, two days before.

Reported by RFE/RL