Russian-installed ‘deputy head’ of Kherson region is killed in a car crash 

The Russian-installed ‘deputy head’ of Kherson region who was labelled a ‘traitor’ and wanted by Ukraine for treason was killed in a car crash, hours before Putin’s troops withdrew from the city.

The regional governor’s press service confirmed that Kirill Stremousov, 45, died in the accident. 

Telegram channels supporting Putin’s regime have reported that the crash happened near Henichensk in Kherson, his personal driver told the @wargonzo project.

‘Russia is in Kherson forever,’ Stremousov – who had worked as a handyman in the US – had boasted, ahead of losses which mean Putin’s forces are on the retreat.

But the official also had enemies among Russians after blasting Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu for alleged incompetence in defending Kherson region.

‘There is no need to cast a shadow over the entire Russian Defence Ministry at the moment because of some, I am not saying traitors,’ he said last month.

However, his death came hours before General Sergei Surovikin, who is leading the war, said the city is now impossible to defend and that troops will withdraw across the Dnipro River ‘in the near future’ to defend the other bank. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has agreed to the plan.

Witnesses say Putin’s men have already abandoned key checkpoints around the city and have destroyed bridges in an apparent effort to stop Ukrainian soldiers pursuing and capturing them. 

Giving up Kherson – the capital of a region Putin annexed to Russia just weeks ago, his only toe-hold west of the Dnipro River, and a key checkpoint on the road to Crimea – is the most-humiliating loss his military has yet suffered.

The ‘deputy head’, pictured, said that Kherson could not and would not be handed back to Ukrainians 

Ukraine has been attacking towards Kherson since early August, and recently broke through Russian defensive lines to the north of the city.

But it has been hard to track the progress of the assault ever since, as Ukraine has imposed a news blackout on the region.

Last week, Western officials briefed that Russia appeared to be in the final stages of preparing for a retreat which was being disguised as a civilian evacuation.

They said ‘reinforcements’ being moved to the area were actually conscripts covering the backs of regular troops as they withdrew.

The officials said Russia’s commanders had concluded the city was ‘not worth defending’ and would try to out-last the winter by building a strong defensive line over the other side of the river.

However, the waters have been muddied by briefings from Kyiv that Russia is actually trying to lure its forces into a trap.

Earlier today, before his death, Stremousov had typically accused the West of being behind the Ukrainian advance in Kherson in an address on Telegram.

He said there were many English- and Polish-speaking mercenaries among the advancing forces, he alleged, offering no proof.

He told how there was an evacuation from Kherson.

‘Many have left. About 80,000 people were evacuated. We help everyone who wants to leave Kherson. I am now in Kherson myself,’ he said.

The place he was killed is Russian controlled and 130 miles from Kherson city.

Pictured: Stremousov, who had said that Russia was in Kherson forever 

The 45-year-old was a driving force in organising and supporting the referendum on Kherson’s illegal annexation by Russia.

Recently, he had evacuated civilians from the west bank in Kherson as Ukrainian forces advanced towards the Dnipro River. 

Stremousov, who was appointed two months after the invasion of Ukraine, was wanted in Kyiv for treason.  A Ukrainian legislator reacted to the death of Stremousov, calling him ‘a traitor.’

Oleksiy Goncharenko, vice president of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees, and Displaced Persons tweeted: ‘Kherson collaborator Kirill Stremousov died in an accident. This is a traitor who went over to the side of Russia.

‘He actively opposed the surrender of Kherson and said that Russia is here forever. And then he mysteriously dies.’

Pictured: Stremousov, circled, is reported to have died in a car crash 

Putin’s puppet governor of Kherson expressed distress and dismay over Stremousov’s death, as the Kremlin placeman in Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev called his demise ‘an irreparable loss’.

On a video Kherson ‘governor’ Vladimir Saldo, said: ‘It is very hard for me to say that Kirill Stremousov died today…..

‘He died in Kherson region, in a car that got into an accident…

‘It will also be difficult to talk about the tragedy to his family and friends…

‘He has five children and a sixth is due soon.

‘Of course, we will take care of all of them, but unfortunately, Kirill will not be returned.’

Mikhail Razvozhaev said:  ‘He was a true patriot of Russia, brave and courageous, in any situation he remained in touch and considered it his duty to inform the residents of the Kherson region about what was happening. 

‘This was the case this morning as well. This is an irreparable loss.’

However Ukrainian sources queried whether the announcement of his death could be a Kremlin trick.

Independent We Can Explain media reported: ‘Against the backdrop of a lack of details about the accident and the circumstances of his death, Ukrainian officials started saying the accident could be staged, and rumours about it in pro-Kremlin channels could be disinformation.’

Ukrainian blogger and politician Anatoly Shariy said: ‘Several sources confirmed the death of Stremousov.

‘If this is true, then I understand what kind of ‘traffic accident’ this was right now when the surrender of Kherson is obvious.’

He appeared to imply that Stremousov had many enemies for supporting the Russian occupation forces which are now pulling back.

He added: ‘And the main thing – if he was killed, and exactly in the way I was told it happened, then it was no Ukrainian Army spies killing him.’

The place he was killed is Russian controlled and 130 miles from Kherson city. Pictured: Stremousov

Political analyst Sergey Markov said: ‘Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson region, was killed. It’s all very strange.

‘He kept saying that Kherson could not be handed over and it would not be handed over.

‘He died on the day when they began to actively talk about the surrender of Kherson.

‘He died not from a terrorist attack, but in an accident. Not in Kherson, but in Genichesk.

‘With him in the car was a military commander Kotz, he did not die.

‘All this is very strange.’

Russia’s press service confirmed that Kirill Stremousov, 45, pictured, died

Stremousov, pictured, a Ukrainian pro-Russian politician wanted in Kyiv for treason, lumped Shoigu and his generals together with ‘corrupt marauders and other scum’ in the Russian defence ministry

Shoigu’s ‘untalented military commanders’ have ‘not really bothered to answer for all the processes and holes that now exist’.

He declared: ‘Indeed many say, if I were the defence minister who allowed this state of affairs to happen, as an officer I could have just shot myself.’

He then suggested that the word ‘officer’ was ‘incomprehensible’ to Shoigu.

Stremousov, a Ukrainian pro-Russian politician wanted in Kyiv for treason, lumped Shoigu and his generals together with ‘corrupt marauders and other scum’ in the Russian defence ministry.

Previously, in a bizarre video posted online, Stremousov decided to try his hand at poetry.

He recited a poem which declared that the whole world was Russian.

The poem appeared to suggest that Russians believe they can send their weapons everywhere and claim all countries as their own. 

Putin spy mentor who was demoted after daring to criticise the Russian leader dies from unexplained ‘serious disease’ – the latest in a number of top officials who have recently died in suspicious circumstances

By Rachael Bunyan for MailOnline  

A close KGB spy mentor of Vladimir Putin’s who suffered demotion after daring to publicly criticise the Kremlin leader has died from an unexplained ‘serious disease’ . 

Viktor Cherkesov, 72, once in charge of crushing Soviet dissidents, was crucial to the Russian president’s rise but the pair later had strained relations.

When Putin headed the FSB secret service before becoming prime minister, Cherkesov was installed as his trusted deputy.

Earlier he had been in charge of law and order in St Petersburg when it became Russia’s ‘criminal capital’ with a record for countless unsolved contract killings. At the time, Putin was deputy mayor.

But relations between Cherkesov and Putin became strained after the spy mentor suggested in 2017 that the secret services were becoming corrupted under Putin. 

And now, Cherkesov has been found dead in St Petersburg from a ‘serious illness’, with no further details released by Russian authorities. 

His death is the latest of a number of top Russian officials who have died in suspicious circumstances in recent months. 

Viktor Cherkesov, a close KGB spy mentor of Vladimir Putin’s who suffered demotion after daring to publicly criticise the Kremlin leader, has died from an unexplained ‘serious disease’

Viktor Cherkesov, 72, once in charge of crushing Soviet dissidents, was crucial to the Russian president’s rise (pictured together but the pair later had strained relations

Cherkesov had written in 2007 that senior officers in the FSB were enriching themselves as ‘merchants’ rather than being ‘warriors’ under Putin’s command.

At the time, an outraged Putin called Cherkesov out on the article and hinted his longtime ally was hardly clean.

‘I consider it incorrect to air such problems in the media,’ Putin said.

‘And if someone acts in this way, makes such claims about a war of the special services, he himself must first be impeccable.’

At the time an agent and also a former agent working for Cherkesov – then Director of the Federal Drug Control Service – died mysteriously from ‘poisoning’.

Cherkesov was fired from this role in the wake of his criticism of the secret services under Putin.

Some interpreted his demise and the poisonings as due to brutal turf wars among Putin’s warring henchmen.

Yet Putin did not want to lose him completely.

Cherkesov – seen by one source as ‘knowing where the bodies are buried over many years’ – was made Head of the Federal Agency for the Supply of Weapons, Military, Special Equipment and Materials for a two year stint.

He later became an MP, but was never again seen as being in Putin’s inner circle, even though the men had been close since university.

Yet he was described as ‘one of the few people with whom Putin is frank’.

When Putin headed the FSB secret service before becoming prime minister, Cherkesov (pictured) was installed as his trusted deputy

Cherkesov was deputy head of the FSB at the time of apartment block explosions in September 1999 in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk, in which 300 died, and a near miss in Ryazan, where a device was disarmed.

The FSB blamed the attacks on Chechen terrorists but independent journalists claimed the secret services was behind them in a political ploy to aid Putin.

Putin – then PM – used the ‘terrorist threat’ to wage a ‘popular war’ in Chechnya which helped him secure the presidency for the first time in 2000.

Unlike many other old Putin cronies, Cherkesov was not seen as flamboyantly cashing in on his connections, and was not listed as a billionaire.

Cherkesov, whose second wife Natalya Chaplina runs a news agency with close links to the Russian security services, is now among a series of high-profile Russians killed in suspicious circumstances since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The latest to die was Ravil Maganov, 67, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil which criticised Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Maganov was found dead in suspicious circumstances after he plunged from a sixth floor window of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow in September.  

Russian state media quickly said his death was a suicide but law enforcement sources said there was no suicide note and there were no CCTV cameras on the section of the building where Maganov fell.

Lukoil, of which Maganov was chairman, was one of the few major Russian companies to call for the end of fighting in Ukraine after Moscow invaded.

Ravil Maganov, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, died after falling from a window at Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow (pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2019)

In a statement in the days after the invasion, the Lukoil board called for an ‘immediate’ end to the fighting, expressing its sympathy to those affected by the ‘tragedy’.

Another high-profile case was that of Nikolay Petrunin, 47, dubbed the ‘Gas wonderkid’, who allegedly died from complications from Covid in mid-October after being in a coma for a month.

His businesses built gas pipelines for major Russian energy operators and he had links to Kremlin gas behemoth Gazprom – now starving the West of Russian supplies over the war – and Rosneft.

Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a PR manager for the Russian Railways, was found shot dead at his home in the leafy Kolomenskaya Embankment neighbourhood on September 28. 

Russian MP Nikolay Petrunin (pictured) is a high-profile energy executive who has died since Vladimir Putin launched his brutal war in Ukraine

Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a PR manager for the Russian Railways, was found shot dead at his home in the leafy Kolomenskaya Embankment neighbourhood on September 28 

In July, Yuri Voronov, 61, head of a transport and logistics company for a Gazprom-linked company, was found dead in his swimming pool, with a leading friend who is a top criminologist warning of foul play.

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg amid suspicions that apparent suicides may have been murders.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered by his lover the day after war started in Ukraine in February.

His neck was in a noose in his £500,000 home.

Yet reports say he had been badly beaten shortly before he ‘took his own life’, leading to speculation he was under intense pressure.

In the same elite Leninsky gated housing development in Leningrad region three weeks earlier, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.

Yuri Voronov, 61, was found dead in August 

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg, stoking suspicions that the deaths may well have been murders

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43 former top executive with energy giant Lukoil, died in May

Igor Nosov, CEO of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, also died this year in his early 40s, reportedly from a ‘stroke’

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, also linked to Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil where he was a top manager, was found dead in May after ‘taking advice from shamans’.

One theory is that Subbotin – who also owned a shipping company – was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.

In April, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13.

He had high-level links to leading Russian financial institution Gazprombank.

Friends have disputed reports that he was jealous after his wife admitted she was pregnant by their driver.

There are claims he had access to the financial secrets of the Kremlin elite.

Several days later multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, after appearing to kill his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria, with an axe.

He was a former deputy chairman of Novatek, a company also closely linked to the Kremlin.

Former Kremlin official and Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev, 51, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife and one of his daughters in April

Russian gas tycoon Sergey Protosenya (pictured), his wife Natalya, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria were found dead in their Spanish mansion, in Lloret de Mar, on April 19

Ukrainian born multi-millionaire Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga Palant, 50, were found stabbed to death in their family house in Moscow region last week

There have also been questions over the death of Putin’s point man for developing Russia’s vast Arctic resources who ‘fell overboard’ to his death from a boat sailing off the country’s Pacific coast. Ivan Pechorin, 39,  (circled) had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok 

There have also been questions over the death of Putin’s point man for developing Russia’s vast Arctic resources who ‘fell overboard’ to his death from a boat sailing off the country’s Pacific coast.

Ivan Pechorin, 39, had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok.

The high-flyer was managing director of Putin’s Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.

And in another case a mobile phone multi-millionaire and his wife were found stabbed to death, with the official version of events raising questions.

Naked Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20.

Immediate briefing to the media claimed the woman took her own life in a jealous rage after Palant said he was leaving her.

Yet this was strongly disputed by the couple’s best friend.