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VLADIMIR Putin’s notorious football hooligan turned spy chief has mysteriously died after ‘choking on a lump of meat’.
Former FSB colonel Maksim Yeremin was eating at his favourite restaurant in Moscow before his freak death aged just 50.
The ex-FSB colonel, circled in red, started out as a football hooligan for the Red-Blue Warriors in Moscow[/caption] The Red-Blue Warriors are a feared group of fans supporting CSKA Moscow[/caption]He was rushed to Vorokhobov Hospital on August 25 but couldn’t be saved, a Russian Telegram post revealed.
The official cause of death for the dad-of-three was listed as “mechanical asphyxiation”.
Yeremin, also known as Yeryoma, first rose to fame standing on the football terraces in Russia‘s top division as a fan of CSKA Moscow.
He quickly became one of the most feared hooligans after helping to create the prominent Red-Blue Warriors.
His obituary described him as “always at the forefront of fan violence, leading the charge in all the most notorious incidents from 1993 to 2000″.
It added he was a “very difficult character – uncompromising, straightforward, and honest”.
“Such people are not always liked, but they are always respected.”
His ruthless reputation as a thuggish supporter soon caught the eye of the Kremlin as Yeremin was recruited to the FSB in the late 1990s.
He joined Russia’s top security service just after it succeeded the Cold War KGB – around the same time it was headed up by a young Vlad.
Yeremin was sent out to the Second Chechen War which took place between 1999 and 2009.
His obituary said he was “involved in the elimination of well-known field commanders”.
The time the ex-hooligan spent in Chechnya ended up getting him hailed as a Russian hero.
After returning home, Yeremin was deployed out to Syria as he shot up the military ranks.
Moving up the FSB’s Lubyanka headquarters before rising to the rank of colonel and the Head of Counter Terrorism.
It is unclear at what point he retired from the military but he had left by the time of his death.
Who are the Red-Blue Warriors?
RUSSIA is renowned for their ultra-violent football groups with the Red-Blue Warriors being one of the most dominant factions in the 90s
The group supports CSKA Moscow, one of Russia’s largest club sides, and have caused havoc in the stands and outside of the stadium for decades.
Widely regarded as a right wing, nationalistic clan of brawling sports fans the group is made up of mostly men ranging from teenagers to the elderly.
Their chilling logo is often shown with a Celtic cross covered by a Nazi skull.
Footage captured from the stands show members of the group waving around flares as they jump up and down mainly topless as they watch the football.
Moscow alone has a number of other hooligan groups such as Fratria, Red-White Djigits, Ultras Dynamo and the Troublemakers.
MYSTERY DEATHS
Yeremin is the latest Russian with links to Putin to “suddenly” die under mysterious circumstances.
Russian general Magomed Khandayev, head of the State Expertise Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defence died in July aged 61.
Khandayev was seen as a key witness in a corruption scandal shrouding the Russian defence ministry amid Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine.
A month earlier, a prominent female judge was found dead after falling from a Moscow high-rise building.
Natalia Larina, 50, was notorious for handling high-profile political and criminal cases, punishing traitors of the Kremlin.
She had been a criminal judge for more than 15 years – and had a reputation for ruling verdicts on cases against opposition political activists.
In December 2023, Vladimir Egorov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, plunged to his death from a third-floor window in Moscow.
The 46-year-old Egorov was a wealthy and prominent politician in oil-rich Tobolsk in western Siberia.
Just weeks prior, the deputy editor of Putin’s favourite propaganda newspaper was found dead aged only 35.
The body of Anna Tsareva, 35, was discovered at her home in the capital’s Bolshoy Tishinsky Lane – nearly a year after the death of her boss Vladimir Sungorkin, 68.
In February the same year, top Russian defence official and key figure in the funding of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine Marina Yankina, 58, also fell 160ft to her death in St Petersburg.
She was head of the financial support department of the Ministry of Defence for the Western Military District, which is closely involved in the dictator’s invasion.
Earlier this year, the chief editor of the warmonger’s state-run TV empire was also discovered lifeless after a suspected poisoning.
Zoya Konovalova, 48, who ran a channel operating near the frontlines of Mad Vlad’s illegal war, was found alongside her ex-husband.
Last July, a multi-millionaire stooge for Putin mysteriously died in his office.
Anton Cherepennikov, 40, a key figure in Putin’s spying operation, was discovered at the property in Moscow.