Lev Sotkov, a former KGB major general and retired intelligence officer, was found dead in his Apartment in Moscow, Russian police said Thursday, RT reported.  Preliminary information suggests that Mr. Sotskov, 90, killed himself with a handgun left over from the battlefield.

 

Russian police said Sotskov's wife found his body in the bathroom of their apartment in southwest Moscow at noon on Sunday.  Sotskoff was shot once in the head.  Police say preliminary information suggests the death was a suicide.  At Sotskov's side was a Tokarev TT-30 semiautomatic pistol, along with a note explaining its provenance, noting that Sotskov had received the relic from the Battle of Normenkan in 1989.

 

Commenting on Sotkov's death, Sergei Ivanov, head of the SVR press office, said: "Unfortunately, an outstanding SVR major general has passed away."  Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Sotkov was seriously ill and had repeatedly told his relatives that he was "tired of life".  Born in Leningrad in 1932, Sotkov joined the KGB in 1959 and spent more than 40 years working in Soviet and Russian foreign and central intelligence.