Media: Russian soldier from private company died in Syria
The Russian Internet publication Fontanka reports that Alexander Sagaydak, a 45-year-old Russian citizen who took part in military operations as part of a "private military company," was killed in Syria in February 2017.
According to preliminary data, he died in late February 2017. His body was transported to the morgue of the military hospital in Rostov. According to the newspaper's interlocutors, the official cause of death is "heart failure".
In the nineties, Sagaydak served for the Russian border troops in Tajikistan, where he took part in hostilities. After retiring to the reserves, he worked for many years in private security services. In January 2016, he was detained by the police for possession of weapons and ammunition. He was arrested and held in custody until the summer of 2016, when he was released on his own recognizance.
According to the Russian deputy Eduard Chirko, under whom Sagaydak had been security chief, he was contracted to work for a certain "private military company" in July 2016, having been freed from the detention facility. After that, he went to a training camp in the Krasnodar Territory.
As reported by a friend and colleague of Alexander Sagaydak in his blog yuliya-ladoga, before Syria Sagaydak had taken part in the fighting in the Donbas and that had broken him.
As reported in February, four Russian soldiers have been killed in Syria; one of them had fought in the Donbas.