Ex-Russian General Who Oversaw ‘Putin’s Palace’ Security Dies in Jail

A former Russian general and Kremlin bodyguard who oversaw the construction of one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences died this week at the age of 69, a prison monitoring official said.

Gennady Lopyrev had been serving a 10-year prison sentence since 2017 on bribery charges he always denied. He died in a penal colony near Ryazan, a city located some 125 miles southeast of Moscow, after an unspecified illness, Viktor Boborykin, of the Public Monitoring Commission, said.

Boborykin said Lopyrev felt unwell on August 16 and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. He didn’t elaborate on what illness the general had.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stands before open doors at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart in Sochi on September 29, 2021. Gennady Lopyrev oversaw security here, and reportedly the construction of Putin’s Palace in the same area. VLADIMIR SMIRNOV/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

As the former head of the Security Service in the Caucasus with Russia’s Federal Protection Service [FSO], Lopyrev was in charge of ensuring the security of state facilities in southern Russia, including the presidential and prime minister’s residences.

Lopyrev reportedly oversaw construction at one of Putin’s extravagant residences, the Gelendzhik Palace near Sochi, southern Russia, near the Bocharov Ruchei, where he looked after security. The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, which has close ties to Russian security forces, said the residence became known as “Putin’s Palace” after an investigation by opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team.

The Kremlin has not commented on Lopyrev’s death. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Lopyrev had no prior medical conditions and was preparing for parole, according to the Russian-language service of The Moscow Times. He was reportedly told at the hospital that he had undiagnosed leukaemia. However, test results showed nothing abnormal at the time of hospitalization.

Prominent Russian journalist Dmitry Kolezev said in a post on Telegram that, being the head of the FSO in the Caucasus, Lopyrev could be aware of the details of the construction of Putin’s palace in Gelendzhik.

News of his death emerged shortly after a regional governor announced that Colonel General Gennady Zhidko, who was dismissed as Moscow suffered setbacks in the Ukraine war, died aged 57.

The former commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District and the ex-Russian deputy minister of defense died in Moscow “after a long illness,” Mikhail Degtyarev, the governor of Khabarovsk Krai, said in a post on Telegram.

Zhidko was removed from his post as commander of the Southern Grouping of Forces in October 2022 and replaced by General Sergei Surovikin after just months on the job. His dismissal came as Russia suffered heavy losses in the war.

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