MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) - A 92-year-old World War Two hero died in hospital in central Russia on Tuesday - the country's Defenders of the Fatherland national holiday - after being brutally beaten by burglars.
Vasily Poltavtsyev was attacked by two men who broke into his flat in the city of Lipetsk on February 10. The thieves, who made off with his wartime Soviet medals, beat him around the head and left him lying unconscious on the floor, the Rossiya 24 TV channel said.
Poltavtsyev was discovered the next day by his daughter. He was taken to hospital in a coma.
Two suspects, aged 29 and 35, have already been detained by police and one of them has confessed, the TV channel said.
The men had already sold the medals, but the buyer has handed them over to police.
Established as Red Army Day in 1922, the Defenders of the Fatherland holiday was called Soviet Army and Navy Day from 1949 to 1993. It was renamed Defenders of the Fatherland Day in 1995 and has been a public holiday since 2002.
