PUTIN’S former minster and IT guru was shot dead at his home, in the latest mystery death linked to Moscow power structures.
Alexey Sklyar, 50, who also served as vice-president of the Russian Export Centre, was found in his Moscow mansion.
When emergency services arrived at the scene, the door to the property was open and a weapon was discovered near the former officials body.
Law enforcement officers believe the death to be suicide.
Local media reports allege he posted the message to friends: “You are reading my letter when I’m no longer here. My wife is to blame for everything.”
His wife disputed this account as “dirty rumours”.
Sklyar served as deputy minister of labour and social protection from 2018 to 2022 when he was dismissed and later resigned, Nexta TV reports.
His death adds to a growing list of sudden and unexplained deaths among Russia’s elite since shortly before the war began in February 2022.
Sklya’s ex-wife was seen arriving at the scene after being summoned to identify his body.
Reports said the former official faced financial difficulties, which became the cause of conflicts in the family.
His second wife – who had recently given birth – had returned to her home region in southern Russia after repeated disputes.
Sklya had demanded her return but she “flatly refused”, according to associates.
Alina Matveyeva, 33, denied the reports over disputes with her husband.
“These are all dirty rumours,” she told REN TV.
The widow said her husband had “problems” but these were not related to family matters.
She stated that she had not yet arrived at the scene of the incident.
“I have no idea what happened there. I’m just about to go now,” she said.
After leaving his position as Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection, Sklyar started his own hi-tech company which had state links.
His sudden death comes amid a grim wave of fatalities involving senior Russian officials, generals, oligarchs, propagandists and and senior figures in the energy sector.
It comes days after a body, believed to be a missing Putin oligarch, was found in Cyprus.
An autopsy is set to take place on the “decomposed” remains thought to be 53-year-old multimillionaire Vladislav Baumgertner, reports say.
The oligarch has been missing more than a week, with his family terrified that he’d been killed.
They said he had left his luxury home in Limassol for a business meeting when he went missing, with nothing but his work phone.
Telegram reports claimed the corpse found was “badly mutilated and has undergone decomposition”.
Just two days earlier, reports emerged that a Russian diplomat found dead in Cyprus was a GRU spy who wanted to defect.
Anton Panov, 47, who reportedly worked as a captain for Putin’s notorious GRU, was found hanged in the Nicosia Russian embassy on January 8.
On Christmas day, Colonel-General Yuri Sadovenko, 56, was pronounced dead from “heart disease”, with Russian state media giving no further details.
That same week the death was confirmed of Lt-Col Stanislav ‘Spaniard’ Orlov, 44, who commanded Putin’s notorious football hooligan battalion that fought in Ukraine.
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There are suspicions he was killed by Russian special services at his home in occupied Crimea.
Another senior figure killed was Lt-Gen Fanil Sarvarov, 56, who was blown up in a Ukrainian car bomb in Moscow.
In July 2025, Putin’s Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, 53, was found dead from gunshot wounds hours after the dictator fired him.
The death was seen as highly suspicious amid claims he had been “tortured” before being “murdered”.
