A pensioner in the southern Kabardino-Balkaria republic blew himself up on his 70th birthday Sunday after doctors diagnosed him with cancer.
Local police said in a statement on their website that the pensioner, who lived in the village of Shalushka, not far from the regional capital, Nalchik, was diagnosed with cancer a day earlier and that his diagnosis likely motivated him to commit suicide.
The unidentified man killed himself by detonating a bomb he fashioned using gunpowder, police said, adding that he left a suicide note asking that no one be blamed for his death.
No other casualties were reported in the explosion, which took place the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 60.
