A colonel responsible for carrying Vladimir Putin’s nuclear briefcase has been found shot at his home.
Vadim Zimin, now retired from the Federal Security Service, had been in charge of a briefcase containing the nuclear checks that always accompanies the Russian president.
The 53-year-old man was reportedly shot in his apartment near Moscow and remains seriously ill in intensive care.
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The former military leader had previously carried the nuclear briefcase as a field assistant to former President Boris Yeltsin, according to the Mirror.
He continued to work for the security service and got the role of colonel under his successor Vladimir Putin, but his exact role for the Kremlin leader is unknown.
Zimin was found with gunshot wounds in the kitchen of his flat in Krasnogorsk, in the Moscow region.
At the time, his customary wife, a doctor, was away from home treating the wounded of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
A frame taken from a Russian TV show shows a set of briefcases containing the codes for launching Russia’s nuclear missile armory. (Image: REUTERS)
The shooting occurred when Zimin was facing a criminal investigation into alleged bribery acceptance after joining the customs service in a senior position, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.
He was under house arrest on criminal charges.
He had denied any wrongdoing.
Zimin was discovered by his brother, who was reportedly in the bathroom at the time of Monday’s shooting.
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He was lying in a pool of blood with a wound on his head.
Nearby was an Izh 79-9TM traumatic pistol.
There is only one picture of the secret colonel.
The briefcase contains the Kremlin’s strategic missile launcher.
Putin is known to mock the West by insisting that the officer carrying the nuclear codes is visible next to him.
Ukrainian president says world needs to be “ready” for Russia to use nuclear weapons (Image: Archive photos)
He did so in April when he attended the funeral of ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Moscow.
Meanwhile, dramatic images emerged yesterday showing the time when the 55th Russian colonel who died in the war was hit by air when a Ukrainian missile struck his helicopter.
Lieutenant Colonel Sergey Gundorov, 51, was beaten near Volnovakha in the Donbas.
The military helicopter flew after being hit by a portable surface-to-air missile.
His affected Mi-35 hit the ground before turning over a narrow strip of forest and crashing into a fireball in a field.
Flames and black smoke are seen emanating from the explosion.
A second Russian helicopter is seen firing flares and appears to be escaping unharmed.
Gundorov is the 55th known Russian colonel who died in Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
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