Sergey Suslin

Sergey Suslin

Personal information
Nationality	Soviet
Born	(1944-11-09)9 November 1944 Moscow, Soviet Union
Died	1989 (aged 44–45) Moscow, Soviet Union
Sport
Sport	Judo, Sambo
Medal record Representing the Soviet Union Men's Judo World Championships Bronze medal – third place 1967 Salt Lake City 63 kg Bronze medal – third place 1969 Mexico City 63 kg Bronze medal – third place 1971 Ludwigshafen 63 kg European Championships Silver medal – second place 1965 Madrid 63 kg Gold medal – first place 1966 Luxembourg 63 kg Gold medal – first place 1967 Rome 63 kg Silver medal – second place 1968 Lausanne 63 kg Silver medal – second place 1970 East Berlin 63 kg Silver medal – second place 1972 Voorburg 63 kg

Sergey Suslin (9 November 1944 – 1989) was a Soviet judoka and sambist. He competed in the men's lightweight event at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Criminal activity and conviction

Since 1977, he worked as stuntman at the Lenfilm studio, playing minor roles in several Soviet action film. While there, together with other athletes who were employed as stuntmen at the Lenfilm, he took part in robberies and other criminal acts. In 1981, he was arrested and sentenced to 9 years in prison for the murder of his wife. He was released in 1989. He died the same year in Moscow after suffering a heart attack.

According to Nikolay Vashchilin, a USSR Master of Sports in sambo, the future President of Russia Vladimir Putin and his childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg were associates with the gang of Suslin and Vyacheslav Ivankov in the early 1970s. Suslin's case in the archives is still classified. Nowadays, a memorial judo sports tournament is being held in his honor.