The last chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Vadim Bakatin, died in Moscow at the age of 85. His death was announced on Monday, August 1, by the Russia 24 TV channel (VGTRK).
Vadim Bakatin led the service for less than six months, trying to reform it in a liberal way. Radio Liberty notes that as part of the changes, many divisions and departments were removed from the control of the committee, including intelligence, special communications and the protection of government officials. However, it was not completely dissolved, as suggested by the supporters of more radical reforms.
From November 1991 to January 1992, Bakatin headed the Interregional Security Service.
Bakatin, the grandson of the repressed, a civil engineer by education, worked in the construction industry in the Kemerovo region for more than 10 years, after which he switched to party work.