A former high-ranking Russian official has been found dead at his home in Moscow in what authorities describe as an apparent suicide, the latest in a series of mysterious and violent deaths involving the Kremlin’s elite.
Alexey Sklyar, who served as Russia’s deputy minister of labor and social protection from 2018 to 2022, was found dead on Thursday morning, Russian media reported.
State news agency TASS, citing emergency services, said preliminary information indicated he took his own life. A firearm was reportedly found next to his body when emergency responders arrived at the scene.
According to media reports, shortly before his death Sklyar sent a farewell message to his friends in which he said that “his wife was to blame for everything.”
Sources close to the family were cited by Russian Telegram channel Baza as saying that for the past several years the couple “had conflicts and scandals driven by jealousy.”
‘Severe emotional shock’
His widow, Alina, his second wife, declined to speak to journalists, saying she was in “a state of severe emotional shock.”
Sklyar oversaw digital systems and online government services during his time at the labor ministry. He left the post in July 2022 after formally requesting to step down, the official decree confirming his dismissal stated.
Grim pattern
His death adds to a growing list of prominent figures who have died under unclear or violent circumstances since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
More than 20 senior figures, including government ministers, generals, oligarchs and journalists, have died in incidents ranging from suspicious window falls to poisonings and shootings since the war began, fueling speculation about internal power struggles, corruption probes and rising paranoia within Russia’s elite.
Last July, former transport minister Roman Starovoit was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car in a Moscow suburb, just hours after being dismissed from his post by Russian President Vladimir Putin.