Vadim Zimin, a senior Russian security official who carried President Vladimir Putin’s “nuclear suitcase,” was shot dead this week (Monday) at his home near Moscow.
Vadim Zimin, 53, is currently in intensive care at the hospital and his condition is defined as very serious, according to media reports in the country.
The retired colonel was in charge of the case under Russian nuclear control that always accompanies the Kremlin leader.
He is known to have taken on this role after being an adviser to former President Boris Yeltsin. He continued in the security service and came to the post under his successor, Vladimir Putin, but his exact role as a former KGB spy is unclear.
Zimin was found with gunshot wounds in the kitchen of his apartment in the city of Krasnogorsk, in the Moscow region.
At the time, his wife, who is a medic by profession, was not at home caring for the wounded from Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Zimin is facing a criminal investigation for allegedly taking a bribe after joining the customs service in a senior position and at the time of the shooting he was under house arrest but denied the suspicions attributed to him.
He was discovered by his brother, who according to media reports in the country, was in the bathroom at the time of the shooting. He was lying in a puddle of blood in the kitchen of his home with a gunshot wound to the head. An Izh 79-9TM pistol was found near where he lay.
A picture of the former colonel with the “nuclear suitcase” containing the launching mechanism of the Kremlin’s strategic missiles was posted on social media.
Putin is known to be teasing the West by insisting that the officer carrying the nuclear codes be seen next to him. He did so only recently in April when he attended Moscow at the funeral of politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who was the leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party.
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