The president of the largest Russian private oil company died: he fell out of a hospital window

Ravil Maganov was the face of the largest Russian oil company, Lukoil. His company spoke in March against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. And he died after falling out of a window at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, in a case that official Kremlin media have already classified as suicide.

The Russian agencies Interfax and TASS broke the news in the last few hours. “Maganov fell out of the window of his room at Central Clinical Hospital this morning. He died of his injuries,” an unnamed source told Interfax.

The TASS agency indicated, citing law enforcement sources, that the event took place at 07:00 Moscow time (04:00 GMT) and that it was “a death by suicide”.

Maganov, 67, was hospitalized with a heart attack and was taking antidepressants, according to the same source. He was the president of Lukoil and had worked at the oil company since 1993 in executive positions.

He was the first executive vice president and oversaw exploration and production. In 2020, Lukoil’s board of directors appointed Maganov as president in place of Valeri Greifer, who passed away in April of the same year.

Hours later, the oil company was “saddened” by the death of Maganov, who “died after a serious illness”. “Ravil Ulfatovich has made an invaluable contribution not only to the development of the company, but to the entire Russian oil and gas industry,” noted Lukoil.

“Thanks to the managerial talent of Ravil Maganov, Lukoil has rapidly grown from a small oil company to one of the world’s leading energy companies …”, added its president’s company, which started as a field operator of oil tankers and later he headed the Langepasneftegaz association, one of the three production houses that started the Lukoil story.

His anti-war declaration

His death, as is often the case with men of power in Russia, sparked all sorts of hypotheses, especially considering that the company he headed had issued a statement in March 2022 referring critically to the war.

On March 3, 10 days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lukoil made a strong statement.

“The LUKOIL Board of Directors expresses its deepest concern over the tragic events in Ukraine. Calling for an early end to the armed conflict, we express our sincere empathy for all the victims, who are affected by this tragedy. We strongly support a ceasefire. lasting focus and problem solving through serious negotiations and diplomacy, “they wrote.

In its text, the company led by Maganov indicated that it would do everything “everything possible” to “continue its business in all countries and regions where it is present, committed to its core mission of being a reliable supplier of energy for consumers. around the world “.

The hypothesis of the balcony and cigarettes

Without further official information on the death, some Russian media revealed the hypothesis that Maganov went to smoke in an area of ​​the hospital that was not authorized, where a balcony gave way and ended up falling and they died as a result of the ‘accident.

This was reported by Baza, a Telegram channel with good police sources, which indicated that the oil executive would go out to smoke in a part of the building that was under repair, more precisely on a balcony not intended for patients.

It was there that he fell into the void. According to that site, they found a pack of cigarettes in one of the window frames. Another fact about the incident address line is that his her wife was in the room next to the one she occupied and that she didn’t leave suicide notes. There are no security cameras at the scene of the accident.

The tragedy occurred on the birthday of Vagit Alekperov, the co-founder of Lukoil and its former president. Additionally, this is the sixth death associated with the oil and gas industry in a year.