Anti-War Russian Musician Falls to Death During Police Search
According to state news agency RIA Novosti, 58-year-old Vadim Stroykin died by suicide when police came to search his St. Petersburg home in connection with accusations of extremism.
The city's investigative committee told RIA Novosti that Stroykin went into the kitchen during the police search.
The musician was last seen alive on the 10th floor of his residential complex, and his body was later found under the windows, according to local newspaper Fontanka. He was accused of giving money to the Ukrainian army.
Authorities are investigating his death.
Stroykin was born in the Ural region. He graduated from the British School of Journalism in the 1990s and became the host of a Yekaterinburg radio show. He later moved to St. Petersburg, where he had been teaching guitar lessons for the past decade.
In 2022, Stroykin spoke out against Putin's invasion of Ukraine on the Russian social media platform VKontakte.
'This idiot [Putin] declared war on his own people as well as a brother nation,' he wrote. 'I don't wish for his death; I want to see him tried and put in prison.'
The musician appears to have fallen victim to the 'Sudden Russian Death Syndrome,' a term that gained popularity among commentators after multiple Putin critics mysteriously fell out of windows.
Last November, Russian ballet star Vladimir Shklyarov reportedly fell from the fifth floor of a building. He also spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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