A high-ranking Russian colonel who played a role in Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization efforts “executed” himself with five gunshots to the chest in his commander’s office after allegedly being set up to take the fall for some of the problems plaguing the invasion of Ukraine, according to his widow.
Col. Vadim Boiko, 44, deputy head of the Makarov Pacific Higher Naval School in Vladivostok, Russia, was found dead on Nov. 16 from multiple gunshot wounds in what has been described as a suicide.
Just days after her husband’s death, Yulia Boiko wrote an open letter to President Putin, asking him to take a personal interest in the investigation into the death of her husband, whom she described as a “patriot of his motherland, a true officer and a professional in his field.”
The five-page typed letter was dated Nov. 20, but the local news outlet News Vladivostok only published it Sunday.
According to Yulia’s letter, in mid-September — around the time Putin rolled out a plan to call up 300,000 reservists — her husband was put in charge of the intake and housing of new draftees at the naval school.
From then on, the widow said her husband spent most of his nights at work and struggled with numerous logistical issues, but received no support from his superiors. At one point, according to Yulia, Boiko realized that he was being “set up as a ‘fall guy’ for all the failures and shortcomings.”
Later, Boiko was tasked with repairing military vehicles that were slated to be sent to Ukraine, and also preparing the newly mobilized draftees for combat. But the officer quickly ran into “major problems,” namely, that the equipment was “unfit” for service.
“You would agree that if military equipment that has been used for years as a museum exhibit is now being handed to Boiko to be sent to the front, he cannot with the sweep of one hand fix the mistakes made earlier by someone else…” the letter read.
Boiko confronted his direct supervisor, head of the naval school Counter-Admiral Oleg Zhuravlev, but instead of tackling the “fatal” issues, according to Yulia, her husband’s boss reassured him that “everything will be fine,” then took a sick leave and “dumped” all responsibly on his deputy.
Yulia Boiko said that her husband was overwhelmed with stress, had suffered from insomnia for a month and lost more than 33 pounds.
In mid-November, military commissioners tasked with investigating draftees’ complaints threatened the colonel with criminal charges and fines totaling 100 million rubles ($1.6 million) for the faulty military equipment.
Two days later, Boiko arrived at the naval school, entered his boss’ office, sat at his desk and used his own service weapon to shoot himself in the chest five times.
His widow noted that her husband did not aim at his head “to end it all as soon as possible,” but rather committed a “self-execution” meant to send a signal to Putin that “there is a disaster happening, that something must be done, that the motherland is in danger.”
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