HIGH WINDOWS

A secretive GRU unit that hunts down and liquidates Russia's enemies is believed to be behind dozens of killings. Foreign affairs veteran MICHAEL EVANS reveals events that inspired his thrillers and explains why critics of the Kremlin should never stand beside...

- By Michael Evans

THE window on the fifth floor of a building in the historic city of Petrozavodsk in northwestern Russia was wide open when the figure of a man appeared briefly, before plunging to the ground. The crushed body of former police colonel, Artur Pryakhin, head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the republic of Karelia, was carted off to the mortuary. Another “suicide” was listed by the Russian authorities.

In the West, it has become a common observation that Russian officials who fall out of favour with the Kremlin should not stand by open windows in high buildings.

Pryakhin, whose death was registered in February, was one of an estimated 17 Russian officials, politicians, businessmen and leading figures in the arts whose death followed similar falls from high windows in the last 30 months alone.

While the authorities were generally quick to blame suicide or accidental deaths, open-window syndrome has become part of the lexicon of fear in a country where the rule of obedience and loyalty is rigidly enforced from the Kremlin.

Vladimir Putin, leader of Russia for more than 20 years, has been ruthless in dealing with his political opponents at home. He has also publicly warned that anyone who dares to betray the motherland by spying for the West will be hunted down wherever they may be, at home or abroad, and face elimination.

In 2022, Putin made a speech in which he spelled out what he feels about Russian nationals who betray their country. He referred to them as “scum and traitors”. Patriots, he said, would “simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths, spit them out on the pavement”.