Paratrooper's last cartridge

In Moscow, former chief of staff of the Airborne Forces, Colonel General Valery Belyaev, was found dead yesterday in his home. According to the press service of the Airborne Forces, the tragedy occurred on Monday night in the general’s apartment on Academician Pilyugin Street in the southwest of the capital. According to the police version, Valery Belyaev committed suicide by shooting himself with a personal pistol. At the scene of the tragedy, investigators found one spent cartridge case, and seven more live cartridges from the clip of the general’s pistol were lined up on his desk.

According to the testimony of his wife, Valery Belyaev had recently been in a depressed state of mind, regretting that many of his friends had passed away. “Now I have nothing to live for,” said the officer. It is symbolic that the fatal shot fired on the 40th day after the death of the former commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel General Evgeniy Podkolzin, with whom Mr. Belyaev was very friendly. His colleagues also believe that the news of the decision to resign the current commander of the Airborne Forces, Georgy Shpak, could have had a negative impact on the paratrooper officer’s state of mind. At one time, Valery Belyaev actively opposed the reduction of armed forces and even spoke out about this in the press. Back in 2000, he stated: “All talk about reducing today’s Russian Armed Forces is nothing more than irresponsible adventurism. If the president and the government decide to take this step, it will result in the complete collapse of our army.”

A native of Irkutsk, Valery Belyaev entered the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School in 1959, after which in 1963 he was assigned to serve in the Airborne Forces. In 1972 he graduated from the Academy. Frunze, worked as head of the operations department, then first deputy chief of staff of the Airborne Forces. In 1988, Valery Belyaev was sent as an adviser to the Chief of the General Staff to Angola, and upon his return, in 1991, he was appointed to the post of Chief of Staff of the Airborne Forces with the rank of first deputy commander.

Yaroslav ZORIN