The incident occurred in the village of Sergeyevka in the Primorye Territory, when the soldier, V. Denis, armed with an assault rifle left the post he was guarding.
"Four contract servicemen found the private, who had left his post and tried to stop him," he said adding that three of them died at the scene while the fourth was taken to the nearest hospital.
He also said the private turned the rifle on himself shortly after he had shot the soldiers.
In a separate incident during exercises in the Far Eastern military district late in June, one serviceman was killed and eight wounded, after a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle inadvertently fired a grenade at a command post.
A total of 442 servicemen died in accidents and other non-combat incidents in the Russian Armed Forces in 2007. Twenty three soldiers died as a result of negligence.
