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, police and investigators said Friday. A police official, speaking to AFP 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. Russian news agencies said, citing an unidentified Moscow police official, that Shebarshin had left a suicide note. They did not provide further details, and a spokesman for Moscow police declined to confirm the report to AFP. Born in 1935, Shebarshin celebrated his 77th birthday on March 24, according to Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.
A veteran intelligence officer and expert on Southeast Asia, Shebarshin worked in Pakistan, India and Iran. He 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.