The biography of Bolotov before the 2014 is very scarce. There is a video which shows that Bolotov participated in voting at a local referendum and showed a Ukrainian passport which indicated that he was born in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast on 13 February 1970. According to other sources, Bolotov was born in Stakhanov. Bolotov moved to Stakhanov in the Luhansk Oblast of eastern Ukraine in 1974. According to the Russia Today, he held two university degrees. Bolotov claimed to be a senior sergeant of the Soviet Airborne Troops in Vitebsk and between 1989 and 1990 participated in a number of conflicts including Tbilisi, Yerevan and Karabakh. He later became the head of the airborne veterans group, while no one of the Luhansk Oblast group cell can confirm it. Bolotov was married and had two children. Bolotov worked as a manager and director at a meat factory and used to run a small business. Before the pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Bolotov was a representative of Oleksandr Yefremov who supervised illegal mining in the region. In 2014, Bolotov became a leader of an armed group during the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine. On May 13, 2014, Bolotov survived an assassination attempt as assailants fired automatic weapons towards his car, wounding the militant leader. Bolotov was then briefly captured by the Ukrainian army on May 17 after he attempted to re-enter Luhansk following his having received treatment for his injury at a hospital in Russia. However, armed supporters of the Luhansk People's Republic attacked the Ukrainian army checkpoint where Bolotov was being held shortly afterwards and successfully freed the "People's Governor". Luhansk People's Republic's Parliament elected Bolotov head of the republic on 18 May 2014. He resigned on 14 August 2014.
Death
Bolotov was found dead on 27 January 2017 in his own home in Moscow, Russia. The causes of his death are currently being investigated. The preliminary results of clinical tests showed an acute heart failure as reason of death. The poisoning later was suspected. Though more detailed report of the local police office claimed that there was no obvious signs of the acute heart failure and only a small atherosclerotic plaques was identified instead. It is known that before death he was complaining to his wife about his health deterioration which happened right after drinking a cup of coffee on the business meeting in company with two men he allegedly knew. It became later known that Bolotov met with ex-speaker of the People's council of the LNR Alexey Karyakin and Valery Alexadnrovich as Valery had said and added also that the meeting was appointed by request of Bolotov himself. Bolotov's corpse was later tested for the presence of the poisoning drugs in his body at the request of his wife, but as of 2018 the results are unknown.
