A well-known St. Petersburg musician fell to his death from the window of his 10th-floor apartment during police searches over his alleged donations to the Ukrainian military, media reported Thursday.
Vadim Stroykin faced up to 20 years in prison if charged and convicted of participating in a terrorist organization for his alleged support of the Ukrainian army, according to the Mash Telegram channel, which is believed to have links to Russia's security services.
The St. Petersburg-based news website Fontanka reported that police searched Stroykin’s apartment in the central Admiralteysky district as part of the criminal case on Wednesday.
“He was last seen alive on the 10th floor when he stepped out into the kitchen to drink water,” Fontanka said.
Stroykin then “hastily opened the window and committed the irreversible act,” according to Mash.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports, which did not indicate what time of day the death occurred.
The pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that a preliminary investigation was being carried out into Stroykin’s death.
Mash said Stroykin died at the age of 58, while Fontanka reported that he turned 59 in late January.
The outlets said he was a native of central Russia’s Chelyabinsk region and had lived in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg before moving to St. Petersburg.
Stroykin was described as a bard musician, a genre identified with the Soviet cultural thaw of the 1960s and the subsequent popularity of allegorical songs as a creative outlet.
Stroykin previously hosted a bardic music show on the Yekaterinburg affiliate of the now-shuttered Ekho Moskvy radio station and founded a travel agency. He devoted the last 10 years of his life to private guitar lessons, including at the St. Petersburg apartment where he died.
Stroykin criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 on social media.
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