Our '67-year old general Pavel' turns out to be the 58-year old Ivan Ivanovich Turchin, veteran of both the Russian military and the Border Guard. He retired in 2011, after 20 years of service at the border in Uzbekistan. So this 'exclusive' story - first published by the Daily Star, and picked up by The Sun, The Daily Mail, the New York Post etc. - turns out to be entirely fictional. We have reached out to the Daily Star for comment but have not received a reply, as of today