In brief -<p>There's a very large park in Moscow called Лосиный остров ("Moose Island"), more of a forest really. On Sep 21st he went out for a walk in this park and around midnight called his relatives and told them he got lost. They called the police and the emergency services. Tried calling him back as well, but he didn't answer. On Sep 23rd his body was spotted from a helicopter that was involved in a search and it was ID'd by the relatives.<p>The rest of the article is fluff.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losiny_Ostrov_National_Park" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losiny_Ostrov_National_Park</a>
Chervonenkis had an appointment at Royal Holloway College, and their site has more:<p><a href="http://www.clrc.rhul.ac.uk/people/chervonenkis/" rel="nofollow">http://www.clrc.rhul.ac.uk/people/chervonenkis/</a><p>I slightly knew Vladimir Vapnik for a while when he was at AT&T research, and he was a very kind, approachable, and passionate guy. You just had to not let his rather formidable reputation (VC dimension, uniform convergence, and the SVM, which at the time was just emerging) get in the way.
Link to Wikipedia article:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Chervonenkis" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Chervonenkis</a>
I suppose this is a good time to mention hiking safety.<p>Boy Scouts of America Hiking Safety Recommendations:<p>- Always tell someone where you are going and when you will return.<p>- Never hike alone or at night; use the buddy system.<p>- Dress properly for the weather and environment.<p>- Wear sun and insect protection<p>- Take an extra pair of socks in case you need to change.<p>- Obey traffic signs and signals.<p>- Avoid hiking along roadways.<p>- Stay on the trail.<p>- Be alert to your surroundings.<p>- Don't litter as you hike.<p>- Be alert to dangerous animals, insects, and plants.<p>- Never touch a wild animal.<p>- Take 1 pint of water for each hour you will be hiking.<p>- Never drink untreated water.
I read about him just now, admittedly was not aware of him prior.<p>My first thought though given the location was "so what was this guy doing the government didn't like?".