Russian authorities say police began searching singer-songwriter Vadim Stroikin's apartment in central St. Petersburg on the morning of February 5, reportedly in connection with a terrorism case linked to financial support for Ukraine's military.
Precisely what happened next remains unclear. But shortly thereafter, the 59-year-old musician and guitar tutor lay dead on the pavement below following a fatal plunge from his 10th-story window.
Kremlin-loyal media have cited unidentified law-enforcement sources as saying Stroikin died by suicide during the police raid -- and that he was suspected of donating money to the Ukrainian military, triggering a terrorism investigation potentially leading to 20 years in prison.
But those who knew Stroikin have their doubts.
"I don't believe it was suicide. That's not in his character. He was a fighter. He was also a mountain climber, and that's not for the weak," Taras Shuplat, an acquaintance of Stroikin, told Current Time. "I'm certain they ‘helped' him."
Shuplat said Stroikin "didn't hide" his opposition to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that President Vladimir Putin launched three years ago this month.
Stroikin also posted on social media commemorations of slain Kremlin foe Boris Nemtsov, writing in 2016 that he visited a makeshift memorial to Nemtsov in Yekaterinburg, the Urals city where the musician previously lived, in protest to "what is happening in my country."
"Most likely, someone snitched on him. We corresponded; he kept dreaming of making it to our singer-songwriter festivals, but he didn't have time," Shuplat said.
The Mash Telegram channel, which is close to Russia's law enforcement structures, claimed that during the search of his apartment, Stroikin created a pretext to go into another room, quickly opened the window, and leapt to his death.
Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti cited St. Petersburg investigators as saying a probe had been opened into Stroikin's death.
Stroikin, who previously worked in radio in Yekaterinburg, held "absolutely clear opinions" about Russia's war on Ukraine, according to Yevgeny, another acquaintance of the musician.
"He was on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces in this whole terrible crime," Yevgeny told Current Time.
Rising Repression
Since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Putin's government has ramped up repressive measures targeting critics and opponents of the war with extremism and terrorism charges.
Russian activist Aleksandr Cherkasov of the banned human rights group Memorial said the persecution of many who opposed Russia's war on Ukraine does not become known until it is too late.
Many such cases are classified, and suspects' lawyers are required to sign nondisclosure agreements, Cherkasov said, and the media often only learns about them after a court hands down a verdict.
Cherkasov cited the case of Russian classical pianist and anti-war activist Pavel Kushnir, who died in pretrial custody in the city of Birobidzhan, capital of Russia's Jewish Autonomous Oblast, at the age of 39 in August 2024.
"We learned about him only after his death," Cherkasov said.
Yevgeny said Stroikin "traveled a lot and was a friendly person who tried to make ends meet with his music." The musician chronicled both of these passions prolifically on his accounts on Facebook and the Russian social media network Vkontakte.
Stroikin's final Facebook post was published on his birthday, January 23.
"Fifty-nine…I'm trying," he wrote.
