MOSCOW (AP) — Daniil Granin, a Russian author who wrote a chronicle of the Nazi siege of Leningrad and several widely popular novels, has died. He was 98.

Granin, a WW II veteran, died Tuesday at a hospital in St. Petersburg. The Kremlin said Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin has offered condolences.

Granin published his first work in 1949 and authored several novels inspired by his experience as an engineer describing scientists fighting for their inventions against stolid bureaucracy. Several Granin's books were turned into movies.

In 1979, Granin published "A Book of the Blockade" containing horrifying accounts by survivors of the Nazi siege of Leningrad.

When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched his openness campaign, Granin won acclaim with a 1987 biography of genetic scientist Nikolai Timofeev-Resovsky who faced repression.