Man who carried Vladimir Putin’s nuclear checks briefcase shot dead at his home – World News

Vadim Zimin, a retired colonel in the Federal Security Service, was in charge of the Russian nuclear controls briefcase that always accompanies the Kremlin leader

A mysterious colonel who had been carrying the Russian President’s nuclear briefcase was found shot dead at his home near Moscow.

Vadim Zimin, 53, is critically ill in intensive care, reports said.

The retired Federal Security Service colonel was in charge of the Russian nuclear controls briefcase that always accompanies the Kremlin leader.

It is known that he performed this role as aide-de-camp to former President Boris Yeltsin.

He remained in security and rose to the rank of colonel under his successor, Vladimir Putin, but his exact role for the ex-KGB spy is unclear.

Zimin was found with gunshot wounds in the kitchen of his apartment in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region.

At the time, his partner – a medic – was away treating the wounded of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The shooting occurred as Zimin was being prosecuted for alleged bribery after he joined the Customs Service in a senior capacity, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

He was under house arrest because of the criminal case.

He had denied any wrongdoing.

Zimin was spotted by his brother, who was reportedly in the bathroom at the time of Monday’s shooting.

He was lying in a pool of blood with a wound on his head.

A traumatic Izh 79-9TM pistol lay nearby.

There is only one picture of the mysterious colonel.

The briefcase contains the launcher for the Kremlin’s strategic missiles.

Putin has been known to mock the West by insisting that the officer with the nuclear codes be seen next to him.

He did so in April while attending the funeral of ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Moscow.

Meanwhile, dramatic footage emerged yesterday showing the moment Russia’s 55th colonel, who died in the war, was ejected from the air when a Ukrainian missile struck his helicopter.

Lt. Col. Sergey Gundorov, 51, was hit near Volnovakha in Donbass.

The military helicopter flew on after being hit by a man-portable surface-to-air missile.

His battered Mi-35 touched the ground before rolling across a narrow strip of forest and crashing into a field in a fireball.

Flames and black smoke can be seen emanating from the explosion.

A second Russian helicopter is seen firing decoy flares and apparently escapes unharmed.

Gundorov is the 55th known Russian colonel to be killed in Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.