Yevgeny Yuryev

Yevgeny Leonidovich Yuryev (; 28 March 1951 – 25 April 2020) was a Russian officer in the Soviet and Russian Air Defence Forces. Over his military career Yuryev served in various positions, commanding brigades, divisions, corps, and finally the 5th Air and Air Defence Forces Army, before retiring in 2006 with the rank of lieutenant general.

Born in Novorossiysk in 1951, Yuryev embarked on a career in the Soviet Armed Forces in 1968, attending the Engels Anti-Aircraft Missile School, and on graduation, was assigned to the Siberian Military District for service with an anti-aircraft missile division. He rose through the ranks and posts over the following years, and after studies at the Military Command Academy of Air Defence, had staff and command positions across the Soviet Union, in the Odessa, Leningrad, Transcaucasian and North Caucasus Military Districts, as well as abroad in Leipzig as part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yuryev continued to serve in the military, and graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia in 1994. Service as a division commander in the Far Eastern Military District followed, and in 2001 he became commander of the 5th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. Yuryev served as the Army's commander until retiring in 2006 with the rank of lieutenant general.

In retirement Yuryev worked for the automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ, and was also president of the "M. T. Kalashnikov Military-Sport Union". He had a career in local politics, sitting as a deputy in the as a representative of United Russia. Over his career Yuryev had received several government awards, and those of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Military career Yuryev was born on 28 March 1951 in the city of Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Krai, then part of the Russian SFSR, in the Soviet Union. His father Leonid Yevgenievich Yuryev, born in 1914, was a soldier, while his mother, Anna Stepanovna Yuryeva, born in 1918, was a medical worker. He was then appointed head of intelligence of an anti-aircraft missile division in the Siberian Military District, serving as such until 1974. He was then appointed senior engineer of a mobile radar complex in the Siberian Military District, holding the position until 1977, when he became head of a regimental command post and deputy chief of staff, still within the Siberian Military District. He registered as an independent candidate in that year's mayoral elections for the city of Tolyatti, winning 3.96 percent of the vote.

Over his career Yuryev had received the government awards of the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" Third Class in 1987, and the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" Fourth Class in 2001. He was married, with a daughter and a granddaughter.