‘Falling from balcony’: Who are Russian businessmen who were suspiciously killed?

Pavel Antov, one of Russia’s richest lawmakers, died on December 25 after falling from the balcony of a luxury hotel in India. Like at least eight oligarchs who lost their lives last year, he was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What is known about the death of Pavel Antov?

• It was confirmed by the Russian agency Tass.
• He died while on vacation in Odisha, India.
• Turned 65 on the last day of 22
• He survived but could not stand

Who was Pavel Antov?

• One of Russia’s richest deputies
• His estimated fortune was US$150 million (R$780 million).
• Featured twice on Forbes Magazine’s list in 2019
• He criticized the Russian war against Ukraine, but would take his word back

Who are the other dead?

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at least eight Russian oligarchs close to Putin have died in more suspicious or mysterious circumstances: the deaths are attributed to suicides or accidents, but according to observers accustomed to known methods, there may also be disguised murders. Revenge of the Russian leader.

All of them were executives in giant companies affiliated with the Russian government, such as the state-owned energy company Gazprom and LukOil.

• Ravil Maganov

He was 67 years old and died on September 1 in the Central Hospital Clinic in Moscow. LukOil, of which he is Chairman, said in an official note that the manager died “after battling a serious illness”, without providing more precise details of death. “Maganov fell out of his hospital room window this morning. He died of his wounds,” a source told the state news agency Interfax. The oligarch publicly complained about the “tragic events in Ukraine”.

• Alexander Subbotin

He was 43 years old and the director of LukOil, a Russian oil company, was a board member of Lukoil Trading House LLC and owned a shipping company on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. He is the brother of Valery Subbotin, former Vice President of LukOil. According to the Mash communication channel, her body was found by two shamans at their home in Mytishchi, Russia, after a healing ritual in which frog poison was used to cure a hangover.

• Sergey Protosenia

The ex-CEO of Novatek, Russia’s second largest gas company, was found dead on April 20, aged 55, hanging in the garden of a mansion in Lloret del Mar, Spain, along with the stabbed bodies of his 53-year-old wife Natalya and daughter Maria. . , 16 years old. Spanish police are investigating the hypothesis of a double murder and subsequent suicide by the oligarch. Protosenia was worth more than $400 million.

• Vladislav Avayev

The previous day, April 19, the bodies of Avaev, 51, a former vice-president of Russian bank Gazprom and a former Kremlin official, and his pregnant wife and 13-year-old daughter were found in a Moscow apartment. Police are prioritizing the possibility of suicide, as bullet marks were found next to Vladislav’s body, and a gun was found and the apartment was locked from the inside.

• Leonid Schulman

A 60-year-old Gazprom executive arrived in St. He was found dead in the bathroom of his home in St. Petersburg. A letter describing the suicide was found at the scene.

• Alexander Tyulyakov

Gazprom’s 61-year-old deputy director, St. He was found hanging in a chalet in the St. Petersburg region. A farewell letter was found.

• Michael Watford

The 66-year-old oil tycoon was found hanging in the garage of his mansion in suburban London.

• Vasily Melnikov

A former employee of the medical equipment company MedStom was found dead in his apartment in the city of Nizhny Novgorod with his wife and two children, aged 4 and 10. No signs of struggles or break-ins were recorded.

date of poisoning

oligarch and head of Chelsea football team in 2021, Rome Abramovich was allegedly poisoned after showing symptoms after a meeting in Ukraine.

Putin has been accused of poisoning his opponents since the 2000s, when he assumed the Presidency of Russia, a practice inherited from the times of the extinct USSR (Soviet Union). It is worth remembering that the KGB was an officer of the Soviet secret service.

One of the first cases of poisoning under his rule occurred in September 2004, when the opposition candidate for the Ukrainian presidential election, Viktor Yushchenko, fell seriously ill and disfigured, but survived. The disease was caused by dioxin, which he swallowed during a meal.

remember other cases

• Alexei Navalny

In 2020, the main leader of the Russian opposition was poisoned and went through a long recovery. In early 2021, after months away from Russia, he returned to the country for the first time since his poisoning and was arrested. Now, a wave of protests is calling for his release.
The fact that the German government said that Navalny was poisoned with a sophisticated substance called Novichok reinforced the suspicions that the Russian state was behind the poisoning, and drew attention to the event even more. Most of the chemical must have gotten on his underwear. The Kremlin denied the allegations about the incident.

• Alexander Litvinenko

Litvinenko, a Russian spy from 1988 to 1998, was expelled from the country after an interview saying he was ordered to kill a former spy accused of revealing state secrets and kidnapping a businessman. Asylum in the UK since 2001, has been a critic of Putin and a journalist.

He was hospitalized with a sudden illness on November 1 and died of a heart attack 22 days later. According to the British investigation, he was contaminated with polonium-210 found in the tea he drank during a meeting with Russian agents. Moscow denies this.

• Alexander Perepilichny

The businessman left Moscow in 2009 to live in England. The following year, he handed over documents to Swiss prosecutors incriminating senior Russian officials in a $220 million Treasury fraud through an investment fund. He was found dead in a park in London in 2012. Last year, US documents surfaced accusing Russia of killing him.

• Sergey and Yulia Skripal

Serguei was a Russian intelligence agent until 1999, and after serving in the British secret service for the past four years, he was discovered and sentenced to 13 years in prison for treason. He moved to the UK in 2010, making an exchange of espionage with the USA. Until one day, she was found unconscious on a bench next to her daughter in a shopping mall in Salisbury, England. They survived. The British government said they were poisoned with the chemical agent Novichok.

• Peter Verzilov

Activist of the Pussy Riot group Verzilov occupied the ground of the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium in Moscow during the 2018 World Cup final in Russia. After the judicial hearing, he suddenly lost the ability to speak, see and walk. He was admitted to Moscow and transferred five days later to Berlin, where a doctor said he had been poisoned by an unknown agent.