A prominent exiled critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin was found dead outside of his Washington, D.C., apartment.
Dan Rapaport, born in Soviet Latvia, was first exiled in 1980, before moving to Russia in 1991, according to Fox News. He went into exile again in 2012, this time over criticism of Putin and later sold a multi-million dollar home he purchased in the Kalorama district of D.C. to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. He was especially vocal following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, frequently posting support for Ukraine and hostility against Russia on his Facebook feed. The 52-year-old showed troubling signs on his Facebook last week before being found dead on Sunday in what looks to be a suicide.
“The horror, the horror. – Colonel Kurtz,” he posted on his feed, attached to a picture of Marlon Brando’s portrayal of the character in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. The psychological film, taking place during the Vietnam War, explores the loss of sanity during wartime.
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Rapaport traveled to Ukraine sometime after the invasion began, documenting his experience on Facebook, and left sometime in April. He also used Kurtz’s “the horror, the horror” quote to describe scenes of the war in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
The Metropolitan Police Department said in an incident report that authorities were responding to a call reporting a “jumper” when they found the exile’s body right outside his Georgetown apartment just after 9 p.m. on Sunday, according to Fox News. They also found nearly $2,500 in cash near his body, along with personal items, per the police report. While his death is under investigation, foul play is not suspected, a police representative said.
Rapaport described the Ukraine conflict as a black and white struggle between good and evil.
“No large conflict in the past 75 years has been so clearly defined as black and white, an epic struggle of slavery versus freedom, totalitarianism against democracy, cruelty versus humanity,” he wrote in an April 11 Facebook post.
Rapaport leaves behind his daughter and second wife Alena, who told Russian news outlet RBC of his death.
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“To our great regret, the husband and father of our daughter is no more,” she said. “We had to meet, he had appointments, he had plans. Dan evacuated us from Kyiv and returned there himself to help my country. Then we were supposed to meet in the USA.”
