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Ex-chief of Soviet intelligence commits suicide
A former chief of Soviet intelligence is believed to have committed suicide in Moscow by shooting himself with a pistol days after celebrating his 77th birthday
A police official, speaking to a news agency on condition of
anonymity, said the body of Leonid Shebarshin had been found
in his centrally located Moscow apartment earlier in the day.
He is believed to have shot himself with his pistol, the
official said.
"According to preliminary information, he might have
committed suicide," investigators said in a separate
statement, adding the gun was found next to the man`s body.
Born in 1935, Shebarshin celebrated his 77th birthday on
March 24, according to Russia`s Foreign Intelligence Service.
A veteran intelligence officer, Shebarshin was the head of
the First Main Directorate of the KGB, also known as foreign
intelligence, between 1989 and 1991, the year which saw the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
PTI