Former KGB Chief Found Dead in Moscow, Police Say - East Idaho News
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Former KGB Chief Found Dead in Moscow, Police Say

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GETTY W 033012 Moscow?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1333159082388Creatas/Thinkstock(MOSCOW) — Russian police confirmed Friday that former KGB chief Leonid Shebarshin was found dead of apparent suicide in his apartment in Moscow, Russian news agency Interfax has reported.

The 77-year-old former head of Soviet foreign intelligence was found dead Friday with a gunshot wound and a pistol at his side, according to police.  A suicide note was also found at the scene, according to BBC News.

“Preliminary findings indicate he shot himself,” a law enforcement official told Interfax.

Shebarshin was a career KGB agent, recommended to the agency after serving as an interpreter to the Russian ambassador to Pakistan in the late 1950s into the 60s, according to Interfax.  He was later appointed to the post of deputy chairman in 1989.  Shebarshin later served as the acting head of the Soviet spy network for just two days in 1991 after his predecessor Vladimir Kryochkov joined a group that tried to overthrow then Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Shebarshin would be nearly the last KGB chief, as his successor, Vadim Bakatin, stepped in to dismantle the organization.

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