MOSCOW, February 10 (AVN) - Acting President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree conferring the title of the Hero of Russia on Major-General Mikhail Malofeyev recently killed in Chechnya.
The title was conferred on the general for courage and heroism he displayed during the elimination of illegal armed formations in Chechnya, Putin's decree said.
Malofeyev, who headed the combat training department of Combined Army 58, was killed in Grozny on January 18 when he led a unit of Interior Ministry troops into the battle. His fellow servicemen did not manage to take him out of the battlefield. Later, Chechen sources claimed that Malofeyev had been captured by guerrillas. However the federals soon found his body not far from the place of his death.
Prior to his last appointment, Malofeyev served in the Leningrad military district for 10 years. He was deputy commander and then commander of a motorised rifle regiment in the Pechenega garrison. Later he was transferred to the Kamenka garrison to become deputy commander of Motorised Rifle division 45. When the division was transformed into Motorised Rifle Brigade 138, Malofeyev was appointed its commander.
In 1999, he became deputy head of the Leningrad district command training department but left for the North Caucasus already in October that year to become deputy commander of the northern federal group.
Commenting on Malofeyev's death, Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said the general's actions were dictated by combat circumstances. Colonel Stanislav Marzoyev, member of the Army 58 military council, said "General Malofeyev died like a hero."
Malofeyev was buried in St. Petersburg, where his family and friends are residing, on January 28. His grave is located at the Nikolskoye cemetery of St. Alexander Nevsky Laura, a well-known place in the city centre where Leningrad district commander Colonel-General Sergei Seleznyov, killed in a car accident, and State Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova, assassinated by unknown criminals, are also buried.
The funerals were attended by acting President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev. Putin spoke at the ceremony and called Malofeyev "a true Russian general." He also ordered to grant Malofeyev's family a flat in St. Petersburg.
Malofeyev's wife and two children were previously residing in an officer hostel in a city suburb named Kamenka.