Russian minister Yevgeny Zinichev dies trying to save filmmaker' life during training exercise
Zinichev was a member of the KGB security agency during the Soviet Union's last years, and his career took off after he worked on Putin's security detail from 2006 to 2015.
FollowRussian Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev died after diving over a cliff to save a photographer who fell during training exercises in the Arctic city of Norilsk, according to officials and sources."The director of the emergency ministry, Yevgeny Zinichev, sadly died protecting a person's life during inter-agency training in the Arctic," according to a statement published by Russian news media. The 55-year-old minister died while attempting to save a cameraman who had fallen over a cliff, according to Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-funded news site RT.
Taking to Twitter, she wrote: "About Zinichev... He and the cameraman were standing at the edge of a cliff. The cameraman slipped and fell... Before anyone even figured out what happened, Zinichev jumped into the water after the fallen person and crashed against a protruding rock."
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President Vladimir Putin was informed of the minister's death, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. Zinichev was a member of the KGB security agency during the Soviet Union's last years, and his career took off after he worked on Putin's security detail from 2006 to 2015. He held various high-profile positions, including the interim governor of Russia's exclave territory of Kaliningrad and deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
In May of this year, he was appointed as the head of the Ministry of Emergencies. He had also served on Russia's Security Council. He was the head of the emergency ministry, which dealt with natural and artificial disasters and other rapid-response crises across the large country.The two-day drills in which he took part in various Arctic communities, including Norilsk, began on Tuesday and involved around 6,000 individuals.
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