In September last year, Putin, who has not wiped his tears for more than a decade, once again showed his "fragile" side in public, and on the 11th, he attended the funeral of an official with a heavy face, and during the farewell ceremony of the body, the president even directly laid his head on the coffin of the official, intending to cover his already red eyes with his sleeve.
At the funeral stage, Putin, who had been crying for more than an hour, could only reluctantly return to his seat, but even so, his tears were still swirling in his eyes. You know, the president did not have such sadness when he bid farewell to his mentor Sobchak, so why does Putin have such deep feelings for this official?
Today, let's talk about what happened to this official before he died. And what story happened between him and the president?
Zinichev was born in Leningrad in 1966, and 10 months before his death, he had just been appointed Minister of Emergency Situations of Russia.
Together with the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Foreign Affairs belongs to an organization called "Sirovici". I have talked to you before, sirovich means strong department in Russian, and although these five institutions have different functions, they have one thing in common, that is, they are extremely militaristic. At the same time, unlike other government agencies, Sirovich is not under the leadership of the local government of Russia, but directly obeys the president.
Among them, the Ministry of Emergency Situations is responsible for dealing with all emergencies in Russia, including possible terrorist attacks, or emergency relief. Because of this, when recruiting soldiers, the department's most important thing is not combat ability, but the ability to deal with special situations. It is no exaggeration to say that, compared with other military institutions, the soldiers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are definitely the fighters with the strongest comprehensive ability and the most concerned about the Russian people.
And such a force naturally needs the leadership of a commander with strong comprehensive ability.
When Zinichev was a child, he was already determined to dedicate his life to the Slavic nation. At that time, the Soviet Union was at the peak of the Cold War with the United States, and the leader Brezhnev had made a call to vigorously develop heavy industry, and as a Leningrad man who was "in the red", Zinichev, like his 14-year-old compatriot Putin, immediately entered the local factory after graduating from secondary school.
Over time, however, Zinichev gradually discovered that simply devoting himself to production did not make life better for the people, and that only by arming his mind could he realize his ambitions. So in 1983, Zinichev resigned from his job and studied at home for a year, was admitted to the St. Petersburg Railway Academy, and after graduation, became an engineer.
In fact, judging from the level of self-study to be admitted to the junior college in one year, Zinichev's IQ is quite high, and this is the most important reason why he was later selected by the KGB.
After graduating from junior college, Zinichev entered an internship at a local military enterprise in St. Petersburg, but he felt a little uncomfortable as soon as he entered the work. It turned out that the Cold War was coming to an end at this time, and in this decades-long struggle, the Soviet Union was unable to do so because of the rigidity of the system and the oligarchy, which was why the Western countries sent a large number of spies, or lurked on the West German border, or directly infiltrated into the Soviet Union to steal secrets from the red edifice.
Zinichev's immediate leader was a "little oligarch" who was gradually eroded by Westernized ideas, and he even entrusted many corrupt tasks to Zinichev, who had just graduated, but how could he be so "insulted" by a Soviet-style education from a young age? Just two months later, Zinichev offered his resignation and, after reporting his immediate leadership, joined the Soviet Union's Northern Fleet.
During a mission in 1987, zinichev's cruiser caught fire as it sailed to a shoal in the Arctic Ocean because of improper operation, and because there were a large number of wires in the cabin where the fire broke out, the smell of scorching paste quickly spread throughout the battleship, but when the other fighters rushed to the accident site with fire extinguishers, they did not see any flames at all, only Zinichev sitting in the middle of a cloud of black smoke, breathing heavily.
It turned out that the accident occurred at more than 3 o'clock in the morning, most of the officers and men were asleep, and Zinichev was not on duty that day, perhaps because he slept lightly, when the fire was just burning, a slight "crackling" sound woke him up, Zinichev did not hesitate in the slightest, turned over and got out of bed after only 20 seconds, he found the fire compartment by "feeling", and with his own strength, extinguished the flames before the others arrived.
It was also this time that the accident handling was not chaotic, which made the KGB notice him, and the then chairman of the KGB, Kryuchkov, personally came to the Northern Fleet, and after saying a lot of good things to the captain, finally "poached" this highly qualified and capable sailor.
So far, Zinichev has also officially started his "secret agent" career after graduating twice and resigning twice.
Zinichev had no experience working abroad, not because of his poor abilities, but because his mind was too meticulous, and the KGB needed him to exclude spies who had infiltrated the Soviet Union. As we all know, Putin worked in East Germany for a long time when he was an agent, but in fact, Zinichev's working environment is more dangerous than Putin's, because he not only needs to beware of the plots of foreign spies, but also has to deal with a group of corrupt Soviet officials. From this point of view, Zinichev's ability to work can even be said to be far above Putin.
In 1988, Putin met Zinichev for the first time while on leave on his way back home. On the same day, Putin, who had not forgotten the "overtime" on vacation, was ready to go back to the office to read the materials, and Zinichev did not know this colleague who had been "out of the field" for many years because of his "new arrival".
Putin later recalled that he valued Zinichev not entirely because the other party was his hometown. On the one hand, Zinichev and Putin's father both served as sailors in the Northern Fleet and also saved the lives of their comrades-in-arms, which invisibly gave Putin a cordial view of this "little brother"; more importantly, when Putin returned to the office that day, Zinichev obviously watched Putin greet many colleagues familiarly, but he still did not forget his duty to carry out a "cross-examination" of his hometown, and this also made Putin think from the bottom of his heart that Zinichev was a very principled and responsible person.
Fast forward to 1998, because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the KGB was banned, many agents are facing the situation of finding their own way out, even Putin has revealed that he was once ready to open a rental to make a living.
However, zinichev was not present among these large numbers of agents who "went to the sea to do business", and after the KGB was banned, he knew that the federal security service that was later established was poorly treated and had no future, but he still went to Kaliningrad, the Russian "enclave", without hesitation.
In fact, in a way, Zinichev can be admitted to the college mind by self-study for a year, and he can completely mix well in Yeltsin-era Russia, but Zinichev himself said that instead of letting him make "full pots" in the free market, it is better to shoot him directly in the job of protecting the people.
It is precisely for this reason that putin still has a long memory of his little brother after becoming president. In 2006, Zinichev was pulled back to Moscow from an "enclave" by a paper order, and he became President Vladimir Putin's most loyal bodyguard.
As we all know, Russia's recognized king of bodyguards is Zolotov, who taught Putin wrestling, but in fact, Zinichev has always been inseparable from Putin's side, but compared to Zolotov's domineering appearance, Zinichev is more low-key and more peaceful.
Of course, not being famous enough does not mean that he is incompetent; on the contrary, Zinichev's political and military talents are completely incomparable to those of the King of Bodyguards. In 2013, Putin sent him to Russia's highest military academy, the General Staff of the Federal Armed Forces, for training. After the gilding, although Zinichev's personnel relations were still with Putin, the president sent him to Kaliningrad to serve as security director and governor in order to temper him.
Zinichev had thought he would spend his life in Kaliningrad, but a fire in 2018 changed his career again. In March of that year, a large Russian supermarket suddenly caught fire, but because of the limited ability of the then minister of emergency situations, many people were killed. Faced with such a situation, Putin, who has always been very tough on personnel appointment and dismissal, immediately transferred Zinichev back to Moscow, and while awarding him the rank of great general, he handed over the Ministry of Emergency Situations to him.
Zinichev also set a record at this time, when he entered the highest school in 2013, he was a general and became a general in only 5 years. You know, even if the merits are prominent, it takes 7 years to defend Shoigu even more strongly than Putin, from admiral to general. But no one expected that after only 10 months of becoming minister of emergency situations, Zinichev would fall on his job.
On September 8, 2021, the Ministry of Emergency Situations was notified to conduct a multi-sectoral cooperation exercise in a mountainous region of The Russian Territory, and coincidentally, the famous director Alexander was filming a documentary of an Arctic route at this time, and was also located in the territory. Because of this, Zinichev personally informed Alexander and expressed the hope that the other side would record the grand event of the exercise. On the one hand, it is to promote the Russian army culture, and on the other hand, it is also to let the vast number of officers and soldiers get a souvenir.
Supposedly, an official like Zinichev did not actually have to be on the front line to direct the exercise, but because he was extremely responsible for his work, at 5 o'clock in the morning, he went to the cliff to consider the deployment of the exercise, and of course, Zinichev also met the director who was filming the documentary.
But just as the two were communicating, Alexander slipped from the cliff and fell into the sea, perhaps out of subconscious action, Zinichev had already plunged off the cliff before Alexander fell into the water. However, the sea below the cliff was rocky, and just as Zinichev was about to enter the water, he was hit on the head by a protruding rock.
The vertical drop of this cliff is more than 40 meters, even if you jump directly into the water, people may encounter accidents, let alone be hit by rocks? Because of this, 55-year-old Zinichev and 63-year-old Alexander died together in the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean.
What happened next was what we talked about at the beginning, when Putin faced Zinichev's body, even if he tried to hold back, the tears also gushed out like a broken embankment, wetting his sleeves at the same time, but also making all Russians feel the sadness of the president.
The Russian media reported that the president even showed a very brief "gaffe" at the farewell ceremony of the body, and his tears flowed for more than 1 hour without stopping, so that later, Putin, who should have comforted Zinichev's widow, became the one who was comforted.
Later, Zinichev was posthumously awarded the title of "Hero of Russia" by Russia, and Putin finally eased up at this time, he said at the memorial service to Zinichev: Zinichev dedicated his life to the Russian people, even if he became a minister, he also regarded himself as a soldier, after facing the 63-year-old man fell off the cliff, subconsciously dived to rescue, his death, is a huge loss to Russia.
It has to be said that compared with Shoigu, Lavrov and other officials, Zinichev is neither so famous nor so tough, but judging from his act of jumping off a cliff, his heart may be far stronger than he looks on the outside.