E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSEx-Soviet KGB foreign intelligence chief Leonid Shebarshin was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Friday in an apparent suicide, Russian investigators said.
Shebarshin, 77, who headed the First Chief Directorate, a foreign intelligence service within the KGB in 1989-1991, appeared to have committed suicide, the Investigative Committee said on its website. A gun, which he was awarded upon retirement, was discovered near his body. Shebarshin had a bullet wound in his head, The Moscow Times reported.
Police also found a suicide note on the scene, Interfax news agency quoted a police official as saying.
The ex-spy, fluent in Urdu, worked on assignments in Pakistan, India and Iran in the 1950s-1970s. He was appointed deputy chief of foreign intelligence in 1987, and promoted to head the service in 1989.
Shebarshin briefly occupied the KGB's top post after the failed August 1991 hardline coup, intended to halt president Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, which paved the way for the collapse of the Communist Party, the end of the Soviet Union and the creation of the present-day Russian state.
He resigned from active service shortly after the coup. During his life, Shebarshin wrote books and articles on the history of foreign intelligence work.
According to The Independent, the lifenews.ru website quoted extracts from Shebarshin's diary found at the scene, which showed he might have had health problems. According to the report, the last entry read:
"March, 29 - 17.15, left eye failure. 19.00, went completely blind. Foreign Intelligence duty officer 4293593."
The KGB fragmented after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its once-mighty foreign intelligence service, crippled by under financing and corruption in the 1990s, suffered damage to its reputation in a number of embarrassing spy failures abroad.
The U.S. intelligence services exposed a group of 10 Russian spies operating on their territory in 2010, which was followed by a Cold War era-type spy swap between the two ex-foes.
Reuters contributed to this report.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Israel fires tear gas at Palestinians at Land Day rally
- Hermaphrodites push for human rights in Germany
- UN orders Syria cease-fire: 'The deadline is now'
- Children at Afghan massacre: Bales not alone
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Leave a Comment:
Of course it was a suicide. Just as so many Muslim women commit suicide by burning themselves to death or jump off high balconies. I gotta call B.S. here !!!
Maybe Gorbachev will take a hint.....
Uhm....Gorbachev is not the problem...Putin the putang is the problem today. If anyone there needs to commit the ultimate sacrifice for his people it's that d'bag
"Maybe Gorbachev will take a hint....."
If not for Gorbachev, and to a lesser extent Yeltsin, the Soviet Union would still be in existence in one form or another. A bankrupt Soviet Union would not have deterred Chernenko, Andropov, Brezhnev or Khrushchev, or Putin if he had been in power at the time.
The free world owes Gorbachev a debt.
That statement has less of a chance at being true than I have of winning the $640000000.00 lottery jackpot.
i hope rocky and bullwinkle...aren't blamed...
Don't you mean Boris and Natasha?
No, this guy WAS Boris, and our guys finally got even!
"But, Fearless Leader..."
Ahhh.... Intelligence: The world's second oldest profession with even fewer morals than the first.
It was US policy that brought down the Evil Empire not Gorbachev.
NObama 2012!
Wouldn't you like to know even 1/10 of his secrets or what he has seen or done? Met a guy that worked for the pre D.E.A. who was in the middle east in the seventies-met Saddam at some function, had a peon following him around giving out gold plated cig lighters. Said he reminded him of a used car salesman.
I heard he had just lost his job on Current TV, I'm pretty sure this is the same Commie that was too boring even for Al Gore's network.
At least now no one can claim he isn't open minded.
NObama in 2012!
Well all you conspiracy freaks got some more material. And dont forget to blame Obama
Obama kill a fellow traveler? Hardly.
NObama in 2012!
Obama would never kill or have someone kill a fellow commie
Personally, I think only a fascist would consider Obama a communist.
Reminds me of the film Unknown with Liam Neeson and Bruon Ganz (who played I believe a ex-KGB officer who committed sucide). Creepy.
Probably a typical Russian suicide, 6 bullets to the back of the head.
lol, good one. :-)
right, uh huh, sureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee he did,, like we are supposed to belive anything that comes out of russia to this day? i dont think so,,
suicide? sure whatever you say pal. these things happen all over the world everyday,,,yes, even in America.
I have met many Russian men and women and I have to say they are a very proud and moral people and to have them as a friend you will never ever have a better friend.
The world ..........may never know.
Does the world even want to know?
a spy does not "retire" out of their profession any less than a mobster could walk out of the mafia.
Putin wants no one left with stories to tell when he begins his new reign as czar of russia. Do you think our CIA would do something like that?
They did Kennedy, they did Viet Nam, what's to stop them?
Suicide. Shot himself in the back. About five times.
@Sichuan
Gorbachev was nothing more then communist party crony. While his intentions were rather honorable - his lack of economic skills, primitive thinking and background of an average farmer made his ideas turn into nightmare for millions!
First of all, Gorbachev did NOT dissolve USSR - he just happened to be the President at the time. In fact he was trying to save USSR to the last minute. His weakness as a leader destroyed USSR - not his will.
Second, world was much safer with USSR then without. Not to mention that 'free world' caused as much misery on people as USSR unless you can prove that invasion of Iraq was really about 'Iraqi freedom'
Gorbachev may impress poorly educated, ignorant American peasant with primitive view on outside World still living in scare of Cold War paranoia but he is NOT welcome by the people who he was supposed to be concerned - people of former USSR (not Westerners for dummies).
Mention his name to the father who's daughter was raped, mutilated and burn for not being muslim in 'peaceful' city of Sumgait in February 1988 because Gorbachev decided to hold off military. That's right - it only took few hours for Soviet soldiers to stop genocide of Armenians and restore order week later. And it was chief of KGB who was able to convince that @!$%# Gorbachev to act. Mention his name to people who lost their family members because Gorbachev idiotic reforms in-placed without single economical though literally created organized crime. Mention his name to people who lost their sons in Afghanistan because it took Gorbachev 3 years go leave that hell hole. Should I mention 'genius' idea to move troops North over Salang Pass in the middle of the winter? How about millions who were left unemployed and even hungry while few made billions ripping off the country? Numerous local wars that caused detraction and death ring the bell?
You should get in touch with real Gorbachev - not the one who gets paid for running his mouth...
While nothing that you said was untrue, and as others said "glasnost" (openess) proved that there was no real "perestroika" (restructuring) under him, his attempt to "fix" things, as incompetent as they proved to be, led to the collapse of the USSR and the end of the "bipolar" world which had existed, essentially, since the end of WWII. Certainly his unwillingness to deal "decisively" (read "ruthlessly") with restive minorities, particularly Muslim ones, led to numerous regional brushfire wars which are still smouldering. So his representation, generally by Western centerists, as a genius of statescraft is all wrong. But it was his unwillingness to use overwhelming force, when this became apparent, that led first the Baltic states, and then the other republics, into open defiance and hence the end of the USSR. And the restive "captive nations" of the Warsaw Pact quickly followed in ending their allegiance to Moscow, held elections, and voted Communism out. And while the resulting countries are admittedly, like all other countries, imperfect, I would say that there are very few former East Germans, or Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Maygars, or Bulgars who long for the good old days, maybe just a few Party members who were used to getting their way usually.
Now for the Russians itself it is different, as you are correct, the economy there collapsed and was only partially "rescued" through the rise of the Mafia. Russians went from the being the proud denizens of what was in very many respects the world's #2 country to impovrished international beggars. And many leading Party members who either really belived in Marxism or really were Great Russian nationalists really did commit actual, as opposed to "assisted", suicide in the wake of this, so depsite all the snarky comments, a proud KGB man, especially facing old age, infirmity and blindness, well, his suicide is far from totally implausible.
Did ANYBODY catch the diary entry "1700 - went completely blind"?
Now THINK about it. If he went COMPLETELY BLIND, how did he WRITE to say he was "completely blind??????????????????????????????????????????
GREAT! NOW they're going to come kill me!
I could write one or two sentences with no vision. So could you, probably. Now if I supposedly wrote several paragraphs, that would be totally different.
Suicide, he shot himself in the back of the head 6 times,
Suicide?...classic! LOL!!!
Pretty sure Russia isn't communist anymore. Also, maybe this dude was just depressed. Is it possible the gov't ganked him? Sure. Does it have to have political implications? Not really.
He lost his life style & mind. They took the chip out of his brain & sewed in a new one that made his mind think you are useless, must commit suicide, KGB ORDERS. Or he was working for 007.
I guess their retirement plan isnt all its cracked up to be...
Johnessy, you mean they also have death panels like the pigbag party here has? Wow!
The USSR has never stopped being what it was. They just found a different way to become rich while they fleeced there country even more. This guy was smoked. When you know to much you become a liability.
Juan -- there is hardly a total overlap between former Party leaders and current Mafia leaders, it's not entirely just the same old people. And apparently a little more is finally starting to "trickle down" again to the common people, as the exodus to the West has slowed somewhat. And their armed forces are a shell of what they were, so it's not exactly more of the same.
Stalin cleaned house when he was in charge. Putin wants to do the same thing. Remember, Putin was a KGB leader previously. This dude knew to much. Suicide by being shot in the back of the head 6 times.
That's the way it happens. A nice spring day a car pulls up. You might even know the people. You probably will.
anyone notice putin never leaves a political post? obuma says this is his last election, he just did not explain what he meant by that. Some people will follow anyone off a cliff or what ever, and accept what the politician says as the full facts, nothing but the facts, as sgt. friday said.
I think President Obama meant that, because a U.S. President may only hold a maximum of two terms, that this would be his last election. If he lost it, he would not run again because a loser would not be nominated again by his party. If he won it, he will then be fulfilling his maximum term and could not legally run again. Either that, or it was an implied admission he is the antichrist. You pick.