Top Russian Official Marina Yankina Falls To Death After Falling From 16th Floor Of Apartment

Yankina was a key figure in funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

New Delhi: A senior Russian Defence Ministry official, Marina Yankina, has been found dead in an apparent fall from a high-rise apartment in St. Petersburg. The head of the financial support department for the Russian Defense Ministry's Western Military District fell from the 16th floor apartment window.

Her body was discovered by a passerby on Wednesday at the entrance of a house on Zamshina Street in Russia's St Petersburg. The police found various documents and other items belonging to Yankina on the 16th floor balcony.

Suicide is suspected, according to the preliminary report, but the reason behind her fall has not been confirmed so far.

Russian Telegram channel Mash reported that Yankina called her ex-husband before she fell out of the window to her death. She also asked the man to summon police to the high-rise on Zamshina Street.

Mash reported that the 58-year-old was said to have been struggling with health problems.

According to the The Telegraph, Yankina, played an important role in funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Before joining the Western Military region, Yankina worked in the Federal Tax Service, and also served as Deputy Chairman of the Property Relations Committee of St Petersburg.

This has been the latest in a string of untimely deaths. Earlier this week, a Russian general who led a crackdown on opposition activists shot himself in the head after being fired by Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Makarov, 72, was found by his wife Valentina with gunshot wounds just weeks after he was fired by the Russian president in late January.

The major general had fallen into a “deep depression” and “didn’t know what to do with himself” after losing his job, The Telegraph reported relatives telling Russian media.

In December 2022, Putin critic and sausage tycoon Pavel Antov died after falling out of a window at a hotel in India. 

 Last year in summer, retired Federal Security Service Major General Yevgeny Lobachev and Foreign Intelligence Service Major General Lev Sotskov were found dead in what were reported to be two separate suicides.