Soviet era

Little is known about Bolotov's life prior to 2014; in a video of him voting in a local referendum, he presents a Ukrainian passport which indicates that he was born in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast on 13 February 1970. In 1974, he moved to Kadiivka, in the Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine.^[2]

Bolotov claimed to be a senior sergeant of the Soviet Airborne Troops in Vitebsk (presumably the 103rd Guards Airborne Division), and between 1989 and 1990 participated in a number of conflicts, including those in Tbilisi, Yerevan and Karabakh.^[3] He later became the head of the airborne veterans group, while no one of the Luhansk Oblast group cell can confirm it.^[3]

Post-Soviet era

Bolotov worked as a manager and director at a meat factory and used to run a small business.^[2]

Before the pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Bolotov was a representative of Oleksandr Yefremov who supervised illegal mining in the region.^[4]

In 2014, Bolotov became a leader of an armed group during the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine. On May 13, 2014, Bolotov survived an assassination attempt as assailants fired automatic weapons towards his car, wounding the militant leader.^[5] Bolotov was then briefly captured by the Ukrainian army on May 17 after he attempted to re-enter Luhansk following his having received treatment for his injury at a hospital in Russia.^[6] However, armed supporters of the Luhansk People's Republic attacked the Ukrainian army checkpoint where Bolotov was being held shortly afterwards and successfully freed the "People's Governor".^[6] He resigned from the position on 14 August 2014.^[7]

Death and legacy

Bolotov was found dead on 27 January 2017 in his own home in Moscow, Russia.^[1] Investigators tried to determine the cause of his death as the preliminary results of clinical tests showed an acute heart failure as the cause of his death.^[8][9][10] His wife later claimed that he may have been poisoned.^[11] Though more detailed report of the local police office claimed that there were no obvious signs of acute heart failure and only small atherosclerotic plaques were identified instead,^[12] it was known that before death he was complaining to his wife about his health deterioration, which happened right after drinking a cup of coffee at the business meeting in company with two men he allegedly knew,^[13] it became later known that Bolotov met with ex-speaker of the People's council of the LNR Alexey Karyakin and Valery Alexandrovich as he had said and added also that the meeting was appointed by request of Bolotov himself.^[14] Bolotov's corpse was later tested for the presence of the poisoning drugs in his body at the request of his wife, but as of 2018, the results are unknown.^[12]

His widow has two children.^[3]