On Sunday, September 23, former Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev passed away at the Vishnevsky military clinic near Moscow.

      "Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev died today at 2.40 p.m." the clinic's representative said, but did not give a cause of death.

      General Grachev was admitted to the clinic's resuscitation department on September 12 and spent there the whole time in a very serious condition. According to the LifeNews portal, he was given a diagnosis of a stroke.

      Pavel Grachev held the post of Defense Minister under President Yeltsin from 1992-1996. He was one of the most outstanding and controversial politicians of his time, always being between people's honouring and displeasure.

      Grachev was one of the main participants in the August Putsch (the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt), handled airborne troops on the State Committee on the State of Emergency's side, but later went over to the Boris Yeltsin's side together with several other generals.

      Being the Russian Defense Minister, Pavel Grachev was most remembered as one of the architects of the first Russian campaign in Chechnya against its breakaway ruler Dzhokar Dudayev (1994-1996). After Russian side's defeat in the war, Grachev was widely criticized and later was fired from his post by President Yeltsin.

      Then he briefly worked in the state arms exporter, Rusvooruzheniye. From 2008 he served on the advisory board of a radio factory in Omsk.