The press service of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia on Wednesday, June 15, confirmed the information about the death of Major General, retired intelligence officer Lev Sotskov and called the incident a personal tragedy.
“They took it as a personal tragedy, since Lev Filippovich provided great assistance, wrote a number of collections, which can be found on the official website of the department,” the press bureau of the department said.
Sotskov’s body was discovered by his wife in the bathtub of their apartment in a high-rise building on Novatorov Street in Moscow. Next to him were a premium TT pistol with a suicide note: “The pistol is a relic of the battles on the Khalkhin Gol River. Received by me when I was a representative at the special service of Mongolia.
Lev Sotskov was born in 1932 in Leningrad. He graduated from the Faculty of International Relations of MGIMO, after which he devoted more than 40 years of his life to intelligence, in addition, he managed to work abroad and in the central office of the department.
He is the author of documentary books and collections of historical documents. In 2006, Sotskov won the SVR Prize in Literature and Art for the book “Operation Tarantella”. The operation was carried out by the foreign intelligence of the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1945 in order to control the activities of British intelligence in relation to the USSR and to promote certain data in the ruling circles of Great Britain.