Gennady Burbulis, a 76-year-old adviser to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, died in Baku on June 19. The former deputy prime minister assisted Yeltsin in negotiating and signing the 1991 agreement that ended the Soviet Union's formal disintegration. Burbulis died while attending an international conference in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, and relaxing in a sauna in one of the hotels.

Burbulis died suddenly in Azerbaijan, according to his spokesman, Andrei Markov. “Due to the death of former Russian State Secretary and First Deputy Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis in Baku on June 19, the investigative department of the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan has opened an investigation.” In response to a question about Burbulis' death, the press department of the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office announced this.

The Russian Embassy, for its part, conveyed its condolences. "Burbulis' family and friends have our sympathies from the Embassy. Our consular personnel is assisting family members who require assistance," the head of the Embassy's press section, Alina Zolotareva, said.

Burbulis played a key role in leading the new post-Soviet Russian state as secretary of state and first deputy government chairman from 1991 to 1992. He was a signatory for Russia, along with Yeltsin, to the agreement to dismantle the Soviet Union. 

Burbulis is the third significant person in the accord to die in recent weeks. In May, both former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and former Belarusian President Stanislav Shushkevich died. 

From 1993 to 1999, Burbulis was a parliament member and later vice governor of the Novgorod region. He was often referred to as Yeltsin's "Gray Cardinal" and played an essential political role in the early years of Yeltsin's first term as Russian president. However, Burbulis fell out of favor in 1993 due to criticism of the political and economic changes he helped design. He served in Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, from 1993 to 1999, as a deputy governor of the Novgorod region in 2000-2001, and as a senator in the Federation Council from 2001 to 2007.