Russian spy chief clears the air on pilot who was found shot dead in Spain

The Russian pilot had landed in Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter last August.

Moscow: Russia's spy chief said on Tuesday that Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in a garage in Spain last week was a moral corpse when he planned his crimes, Russian news agencies reported.

Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), declined to comment further on Kuzminov, Russian news agencies reported.

Spain's state news agency EFE reported that a body found on February 13 in the town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante in southern Spain, belonged to pilot Kuzminov, who had landed in Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter last August.

He had been living in Spain with a Ukrainian passport under a different name, it said.