The body of the former head of Rosvooruzhenie, 64-year-old Alexei Ogarev, was discovered about 14 kilometers from the Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway in the Balaton summer village near Moscow.
The body was found on Thursday afternoon in a house within the Balaton cottage settlement. Officials said death is not classified as a crime at this stage, with the information reported by RIA Novosti quoting a source.
No wounds or signs of violent death were detected on the body, which relatives located. The Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region and the Moscow Regional Prosecutor’s Office launched checks into Ogarev’s death. Depending on the findings, investigators will decide whether to open a criminal case and initiate a full investigation or to close the case without charges.
Officials noted that the exact cause of death would be determined after examinations and stated that a pre-investigation review had been conducted.
A source familiar with Rosoboronexport told RBC that, up to now, the Russian Investigative Committee had not identified a need for an investigation.
“According to his wife, he died by his own hand,” another source connected to Rosoboronexport said. The source explained that Ogarev did not work for Rosoboronexport directly and had left the organization during the merger of Promexport and Rosvooruzhenie. He supposedly did not maintain ties with Rosoboronexport afterward.
What is known about the deceased
Alexei Ogarev was born in 1957 in Moscow. In 1981, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute, where Tatiana Yeltsin, daughter of the first Russian president, studied alongside Alexei Dyachenko. Reports from business media describe Ogarev as having been close to the Yeltsin circle and representing certain interests on their behalf.
In the late 1980s, Ogarev worked within the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, until 1997, served as the permanent representative of Russia to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He participated in arms control and disarmament negotiations. In 1997 he took on the role of deputy to the presidential administration, under Valentina Yumasheva at the time, and also became deputy chairman of the commission on military-technical cooperation with foreign states under the Russian president.
He assumed the post of deputy secretary of the Security Council in February 1999, overseeing military-technical cooperation with foreign partners. In the late 1990s, two state entities handled arms export and dual-use product trade: Rosvooruzhenie and Promexport. Ogarev led Rosvooruzhenie from August 1999, and Sergey Chemezov, who later headed Rostec, led Promexport starting in September of the same year.
Forbes later noted a clash between Ogarev and Chemezov. The businesses eventually merged, creating Rosoboronexport in 2000. Reports indicate that Ogarev declined a leadership position in the merged structure and left, with Chemezov becoming the head of Rosoboronexport for several years. Since July 1, 2011, Rosoboronexport has been wholly owned by Rostec.