Vladimir Putin’s “keeper of secrets” died on Christmas Day, less than two years after the Russian president fired him.
Colonel-General Yuri Sadovenko, 56, died from “heart disease” on Christmas Day in Moscow, according to Russian news outlets. The Sun reports that the Ukrainian-born Sadovenko was close to former Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu.
Sadovenko served as the deputy defense minister up until he and Shoigu were ousted in May 2024 as part of a massive shakeup at the Kremlin. Shoigu, to whom Sadavenko had reportedly acted as a “gatekeeper,” is now the secretary of Russia’s security council.
Sadavenko, who had been sanctioned by Britain and other western states, reportedly showed no signs of ill health before his death.
He had previously been embroiled in scandal after his wife, Maria Kitaeva, left him for another deputy defense minister, Timur Ivanov, according to The Sun.
Ivanov, 50, was arrested in April 2024 and convicted in July 2025 on charges of embezzlement and money laundering, receiving a 13-year prison sentence, the Associated Press reported.
Since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, numerous top government officials have died under suspicious or sudden circumstances.
On Monday, a funeral was held in Moscow for Stanislav Orlov, 44, the head of a notorious volunteer brigade of neo-Nazi football hooligans who have fought in Ukraine.
Independent Russian news outlets have reported that Orlov, nicknamed the “Spaniard,” was ambushed and shot by Moscow’s own security forces earlier this month, according to The Guardian.
Orlov’s death adds to a growing list of Russian military and civilian leaders who have died, most notably Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenaries.
Prigozhin, 62, was killed in a plane crash in August 2023, weeks after he led an insurrection against Putin. He had once been close enough to the Russian dictator to earn the nickname “Putin’s chef.”
In July this year, Putin sacked Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, 53, who was found dead hours later in a park with a gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled a suicide.
On the same day, Andrei Korneichuk, 42, another transportation official who had worked closely with Starovoit, collapsed and died of what was said to be a heart attack.
Other deaths have long sparked jokes about staying away from windows and seen a series of former high-ranking officials being suddenly found dead stories below where they were last seen.
However not all sudden deaths are equal. Ukraine has been able to assassinate several leading Russian military figures many hundreds of miles behind enemy lines in recent months.
Last week, a top general, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, died after a bomb exploded under his car. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation believes Ukraine could be behind the blast.
The post Putin’s ‘Keeper of Secrets’ Dies Suddenly After Firing appeared first on The Daily Beast.
