NIZHNY NOVOGOROD/MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax-AVN) - Private Andrei Stepanov, active duty serviceman of a unit in the Volga district of the Interior Ministry troops, has committed suicide, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry main department in the Volga federal district told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
"The corpse of the serviceman was found at the 17th kilometer of the highway connecting the cities of Vyatka, Cheboksary and Syktyvkar; it was lying near the Urzhumka police post in the Mary El autonomous republic." According to preliminary investigation results, the serviceman shot himself dead using an AKS-74 assault rifle.
"Preliminary inquiry found out that on Tuesday morning Private Stepanov was on duty at a police post. He walked off to the area for keeping seized vehicles and fired in his chin from an assault rifle," the press bureau of the Interior Ministry troops told Interfax-AVN.
The military prosecutor's office launched a criminal case to investigate the incident. A commission of the Volga district of the Interior Ministry troops is working in Stepanov's unit with a mission to find out reasons for his suicide.
Stepanov, a native of the city of Yoshkar-Ola, was drafted for active-duty service in autumn 2000. He served in the town of Seversk in the Siberian military district and was relocated to the Volga district in September 2001 for family reasons.