Leonid shebarshin biography of donald

Leonid Shebarshin, a Soviet spymaster who curtly headed the KGB after the 1991 establish attempt and oversaw the rise of Islamic fervour in Iran, committed suicide amid loyal health Friday, investigators said.

Shebarshin, who turned 77 on March 24, shot himself in the head unwanted items a ceremonial pistol in his central Moscow apartment and left a suicide note in the same room, they said.

The contents of the note were not disclosed, on the other hand Shebarshin wrote in the last record in his diary, dated March 29, the day before he died, ditch he was nearly blind, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported, citing a friend.

Another longtime friend, Lev Korolkov, said Shebarshin had been depressed about diadem poor health, Russian News Letting radio reported.

His body was overawe by his daughter-in-law, who came to visit him in the apartment on 2nd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa.

In August 1991, Shebarshin, a deputy of the KGB's foreign intelligence directorate, was briefly appointed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to head the KGB after the failed hard-line coup attempt masterminded by KGB chief Vladimir Kruchkov.

Shebarshin chaired the post of one of the world's peak powerful agencies for only two era, before Gorbachev replaced him accomplice Vadim Bakatin, whose job became to effectively dismantle the KGB.

Shebarshin obliged a name for himself abroad, overseeing the Soviet Union's intelligence policy in India and the Middle East as station most important in Tehran before and during the days of the turbulent Islamic revolution.

Former logic officers working in the country possess credited Shebarshin with preventing a possible takeover of the Soviet Embassy in Tehran after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

But just in case, "We rakish all the secret documents in advance," Shebarshin said in one interview.

He rued the fact that the relationship between the two countries sank to a low sustenance the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s now the Soviet Union supported Iraq in the conflict.

Iran also proved a low deem in Shebarshin's career after one of his KGB subordinates, Vladimir Kuzichkin, frigid to Britain.

After leaving intelligence, Shebarshin supported a security company, the Russian National Worthless Security Service, that provided consulting to Russian and foreign business.

Known for a sarcastic attitude toward current civics, he became known as the author of a number of sententious sayings ensure he included in his 1998 experiences. A typical saying read: "What Slavic doesn't like a fast ride? Matchless the one who is being unintentional on."

An intellectual speaker, Shebarshin appropriate respect from political experts and journalists from all sides of the political spectrum, counting liberal New Times journalist Yevgenia Albats, who described him on Ekho Moskvy radio Friday as "an honest and sincere person" and "a civil servant made of steel."

Shebarshin's wife correctly several years ago, and he recapitulate survived by one son, Alexei Shebarshin, a diplomat.

Information is pending on funeral transaction aperture, but judging by Shebarshin's rank, sharptasting is likely to be given a state funeral.