A former commander of Russian ground forces with close ties to Ukraine died ‘suddenly’ the day after Vladimir Putin abruptly cancelled a trip to the tank enterprise where he worked as an international sales ambassador.
Alexei Maslov, 69, passed away on Christmas Day in a Moscow military hospital, the Uralvagonzavod plant announced.
From 2008 he has acted as Russia’s chief military representative to NATO, RBC reported.
Maslov’s loss follows the ‘sudden death’ of Alexander Buzakov, 65, general director of Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg, in charge of building new submarines.
The FSB security service had formed an ‘investigative group’ into