He was supposed to become Deputy Commander of the Airborne Forces for Combat Training, but shortly after his return to Moscow from Kosovo, he died by falling from his apartment building.

[1] He rose to prominence in October 1996, when he was removed from his position in the Russian Airborne Forces by President Boris Yeltsin for openly criticizing the General Staff for its plan to merge the independent service with the Russian Ground Forces.

[4] His original post of Deputy Commander for Peacekeeping Forces went to Major General Aleksandr Popov after he went to Kosovo.

[6][7] About a month after returning from Kosovo, on 17 December 2001, Kazantsev died after falling from the eighth floor of his Moscow apartment building, at the age of 48.

He was unable to find it and tried to leave the apartment by climbing from his balcony to one of his neighbor's, but fell in the process.