After surgery, the man who oversaw Vladimir Putin‘s allegedly “fixed” elections for nine years passed quite unexpectedly.
The 70-year-old Vladimir Churov formerly served as the head of the Russian Central Election Commission.
During his tenure from 2007 to 2016, the opposition accused him of “election fraud” that favored Putin.
The president then personally designated him as a Russian ambassador at large.
Lawmaker Leonid Ivlev told news agency TASS: ‘It is sad news indeed.
‘[He died] after surgery in a hospital at 8am today.
‘[He] passed away after suffering a serious heart attack.’
He added Mr Churov had appeared ‘in good health’ up until today and had been discussing his future plans.
Mr Churov was seen as ‘doing bidding for the Kremlin’ to rig elections while also making them appear creditable.
A former Western diplomat in Moscow said: ‘Churov knew where the bodies were buried over election falsification which gave Putin a clear run, preventing opposition parties gaining a foothold.’
At the time of his death he was in the process of writing a book on alleged US meddling in elections abroad.
The eyes of the world have been on Russia this week after a pomp-filled state visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping.
He told Putin ‘change is coming’ as he left the Kremlin after the two leaders showcased their ‘no-limits friendship’ in front of the media.
Shaking hands as the Chinese president left the imperial palace, Xi said via an interpreter: ‘Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years. And we are driving this change together.’
Putin replied: ‘I agree,’ before his counterpart bid him farewell, saying: ‘Please, take care, dear friend.’