MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax) - A scanned copy of a suicide note left behind by Russian rocket engineer Alexander Dolmatov before committing suicide in the Netherlands was posted by journalist Oleg Kashin on his Twitter on Friday.
Kashin received the copy from writer Sergei Shargunov, Dolmatov's friend, who says he read the note together with Dolmatov's mother.
"I am at Sasha Dolmatov's apartment. Have just read his suicide note with his mother. He was incited to commit suicide. If only this was suicide. Writes he is departing so as not to look like a traitor," Kashin says on Twitter in quoting Shargunov's message.
Kashin says Dolmatov's mother received the scanned copy of her son's suicide note from a lawyer in the Netherlands.
The note consists of several sheets with a handwritten text.
"Dear Mom! I am leaving so as not to return as a traitor and defame everyone, our whole family. Such things happen, please endure this. I am with you, and I know you will endure. This is the best option. Say in Russia that this was just an accident. What drove me to flee Russia is my laziness and slovenliness over which I failed to study the new laws. I betrayed an honest man, and I betrayed my Homeland's security. If it is possible, transfer my body to Russia. Russia is stronger than any other country, and it will only be stronger. Living in Russia [illegibly] better than anywhere else," says the note available on Kashin's Twitter.
Dolmatov was a leading designer of a Russian defense company and a suspect in the Bolotnaya Square case. He left for the Netherlands where he applied for political asylum. It emerged on January 17 that he had committed suicide after the Dutch authorities denied political asylum to him. Minister Plenipotentiary Onno Elderenbosch of the Dutch Embassy in Russia told the media that, judging by Dolmatov's death note to his mother, he had committed suicide not because he had been denied refuge.
Russia earlier demanded that the Dutch government urgently investigate Dolmatov's death in that country. "The moment the news arrived, the Russian Embassy urged the Dutch authorities to start an urgent and exhaustive inquiry," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website on Friday.
The Netherlands' repatriation and deportation service informed the Russian Embassy in The Hague on January 17 about the death of Dolmatov, 36, at a temporary center for refuge applicants in Rotterdam, the ministry reported.
Preliminary findings by Dutch authorities indicated that Dolmatov's death was a suicide, the ministry said. "This issue will remain under the Russian embassy consular service's close control," it said.