An enigmatic passing of a high-ranking Russian executive last week has sparked more focus on the growing number of questionable deaths among the oligarchs and those who oppose President Vladimir Putin, prompting doubts about whether these incidents have become too frequent to be purely accidental.
A senior executive from the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, Ivan Pechorin, was discovered deceased in Vladivostok. He is believed to have fallen from his high-end yacht and drowned near Cape Ignatyev in the Sea of Japan, as reported by the local authorities two days prior.
On 12 September 2022, the company released a statement announcing the unfortunate passing of our colleague, Ivan Pechorin, who served as the Managing Director for the Aviation Industry within the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic.
It is reported that Pechorin was assigned the responsibility of modernizing Russia's aviation sector and operated directly under Putin.
This year, the 43-year-old general director of the company, Igor Nosov, passed away due to a reported stroke following his appointment in May 2021.
In the meantime, another aviation specialist passed away under mysterious conditions: Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former director of the Moscow Aviation Institute, was declared dead following a fall down "several flights of stairs" on Wednesday, as stated by the institute.
Geraschenko headed the institute — which works closely with the Russian Ministry of Defence and has contributed to the creation of aircraft such as the MiG fighter jets — until 2015, although it is thought to have continued in a consultancy capacity afterwards.
The Russian aerospace sector has been widely accused of maintaining close connections with intelligence activities.
In 2018, Nikolai Glushkov, the ex-deputy director of Aeroflot, the Russian national airline, was discovered hanging in his residence in New Malden, London. He had previously stated that approximately one-fourth of the company's staff were agents from one of the nation's intelligence agencies.
Glushkov was a prominent critic of the Kremlin and a close associate of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who also died under similar circumstances in 2013 with a rope around his neck.
The passing of Glushkov also took place shortly following the novichok poisoning of former GRU spy and double agent Alexei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, leading investigators to classify it as unusual.
The findings from an inquest concluded in April 2021 indicated that Glushkov was illegally killed, with his death staged to appear as a suicide by hanging.
Stumbled and collapsed while smoking
The announcement of Pechorin's death occurred less than two weeks after the chairman of Russia's biggest private oil company, Ravil Maganov, passed away, as reported by Russian news agencies.a unintentional drop from a hospital window.
At first, a statement from his company Lukoil mentioned that Maganov "died following a serious illness" on 1 September without providing additional information.
Subsequent Russian media reports mentioned that his body was discovered on the premises of Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, a facility where many of Russia's political and business leaders are frequently treated.
Maganov seemed to have fallen from a sixth-floor window, according to the reports. Some sources mentioned he lost his balance and tumbled down while smoking, noting that a pack of cigarettes was discovered near the window. The news website RBK also reported that authorities were looking into the chance of suicide.
Lukoil was among a small number of Russian firms that openly advocated for the conclusion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, urging in March for the "immediate halt to the military conflict."
By the way, Maganov was not the first Lukoil representative to pass away under questionable conditions since the Kremlin launched its large-scale invasion of the neighboring country in late February.
A senior executive named Aleksandr Subbotin was discovered deceased in the basement of a house located in a Moscow suburb in May.
Russian media reported that the house was owned by an individual known as Shaman Magua, a self-proclaimed healer who conducted purification ceremonies.
Magua stated that Subbotin visited his residence while under the effects of alcohol and drugs, insisting that the healer, whose actual name is Aleksei Pindurin, conduct a healing ceremony to alleviate his hangover.
Authorities stated that the initial reason for Subbotin's passing was identified as cardiac failure.
However, it was the death of Ravil Maganov that drew media focus, as it was the most widely reported among a series of accidental self-defenestrations and other questionable deaths of individuals who either benefited from positive ties with Putin or posed a challenge to him — or both.
Oligarchs opposed to war meet mysterious deaths
At least eight more Russian billionaires have passed away under mysterious conditions since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. All shared a common background of strong ties to the Kremlin, significant wealth, involvement in Russian gas, and a position against the war in Ukraine.
This has sparked the suspicion of global investigators, who are now starting to think that these deaths might have been fake suicides or targeted killings because of their position regarding the Kremlin's actions against Ukraine or their connections to corruption within the Russian gas company Gazprom.
It began in St. Petersburg as tensions escalated before the war.
Just a month prior to the start of the conflict in Ukraine, a senior official from the gas company Gazprom was discovered deceased at his cabin near St Petersburg.
Leonid Shulman, aged 60, was discovered in the bathroom of his residence with injuries to his wrists, according to local news reports, which referenced an insider.
As per the police, a suicide letter was reportedly discovered beside his body, detailing his anguish following a leg injury — which Gazprom stated led him to take a break from work.
The authenticity of the version has come under scrutiny following a statement from the Warsaw Institute think tank, which claimed that Shulman, who previously led the transport service at Gazprom Invest, was linked to a potential corruption scandal involving the Russian energy giant.
The day following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Alexander Tyulyakov, a 65-year-old senior official from Gazprom's Corporate Security, passed away at his residence in the same village where Shulman lived. As reported by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, his body was discovered hanging in the garage.
The same newspaper cited an unidentified law enforcement representative who stated that Gazprom's internal security team reached the location of the suicide simultaneously with the police and was also looking into the incident.
Among the two fatalities that occurred overseas is that of Mikhail Watford, who resided in the UK with his family. On 28 February, the 66-year-old Ukrainian-born oil and gas tycoon, who also established a property business in London, was discovered deceased at his residence in Surrey.
The cause of Watford's death was identified as hanging, although his wife and children, who were present at the house, remained unharmed. UK officials were considering Watford's death as unexplained but not raising any suspicions.
It was later revealed that Watford, often known as Misha, had altered his last name from Tolstosheya following his move to the UK in early 2000.
Are murder-suicides increasing abruptly among oligarchs aligned with Putin?
In March, the remains of Russian billionaire Vasily Melnikov and his family were discovered in his high-end apartment located in Nizhny Novgorod, a city situated in western Russia.
Melnikov accumulated his wealth by working for one of the medical firms targeted by Western sanctions.
As reported by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Melnikov, together with his 41-year-old wife and two young children, who are 10 and 4 years old, succumbed to stab injuries. The suspected weapon used in the crime was reportedly discovered at the location where the incident occurred.
The media stated that the wealthy individual had murdered his family prior to taking his own life, yet neighbors and other family members contested the official account.
Other forms of media have reported that Melnikov's business, which imports medical devices into Russia, was nearing financial collapse as a result of Western penalties imposed in response to the conflict in Ukraine.
The most recent incident occurred in Spain, particularly in Lloret de Mar, where Russian billionaire Sergei Protosenya, aged 55, was discovered deceased together with two other family members on 19 April.
The former leader of the gas company Novatek, who had a net worth of €400 million, was discovered hanging, while his wife and daughter were found murdered in their family villa.
What was initially labeled by the police as a double murder followed by Protosenya's suicide was firmly refuted by his son.
Several family acquaintances have also publicly claimed that Protosenya is indeed the third victim of a "fabricated suicide," asserting that the oligarch was incapable of killing his family.
The authorities in Catalonia are continuing to examine the matter.
The day prior to the passing of Protosenya and his family, the body of Russian billionaire Vladislav Avayev was discovered in his Moscow apartment, alongside his wife and 13-year-old daughter. His daughter Anastasia, aged 26, was the one who found the crime scene.
A source connected to law enforcement, as reported by the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, indicated that initial evidence suggested Avayev — a former advisor to Putin and ex-vice president of Gazprombank — murdered his wife and daughter before taking his own life.
A handgun was discovered in the oligarch's possession, and the apartment was secured from within.
Gazprombank is Russia's third-biggest financial institution and is linked to Gazprom, the world's leading publicly listed natural gas company.
Avayev was not the final high-ranking Gazprom official to pass away under mysterious conditions, nevertheless.
On 2 May, Andrei Krukovsky, a 37-year-old manager at a Sochi ski resort owned by a major gas company, passed away following a reported fall from a cliff while trekking near the Achipse fortress, a notable attraction in the picturesque region.
"The head of the Krasnaya Polyana resort, Andrei Alekseevich Krukovsky, passed away unexpectedly. He had a deep affection for the mountains and found tranquility in them," reported TASS news agency.
The Krasnaya Polyana is among the most well-known ski locations in Russia and formed part of the Olympic infrastructure for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
On 4 July, wealthy entrepreneur Yuri Voronov was discovered in the pool at his residence in the upscale Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg, having sustained a head injury from a gunshot.
The authorities recovered a handgun from the location, while spent bullet shells were discovered at the pool's base, according to local news outlets.
At 61 years old, Voronov, whose passing was classified as a suicide, served as the CEO of Astra-Shipping, a transport and logistics firm that acted as a subcontractor for Gazprom, holding significant contracts related to its activities in the Arctic.
Self-defenestrations the most suspicious
Maganov's passing on Thursday continues the trend of high-profile Russians meeting untimely deaths by falling from windows.
In October 2021, a Russian official was discovered deceased following a fall from a window at the Russian embassy in Berlin, according to Der Spiegel.
An unidentifiable man served as a second secretary at the embassy, yet German intelligence officials revealed to the newspaper that they believed him to be a covert agent from Russia's FSB.
An investigative platform named Bellingcat stated that it utilized publicly available information to determine the individual's identity as Kirill Zhalo, the son of General Alexey Zhalo, who serves as the deputy head of the FSB's Second Service, tasked with handling internal political threats for the Kremlin.
In December of the same year, the owner of the nationalist blog Sputnik and Pogrom, Yegor Prosvirnin, passed away following a fall from a window at a Moscow apartment building.
The body of Prosvirnin was discovered beside a knife and a gas canister following noises of shouting and yelling coming from his apartment, according to local media.
Prosvirnin, a right-wing activist, initially backed Russia's takeover of Crimea in 2014 but later emerged as a strong opponent of Putin, forecasting a civil conflict within Russia and the disintegration of the Russian state.
On 14 August, Dan Rapoport, a Latvian-American investment banker and vocal critic of Putin, was discovered deceased in front of a high-end apartment complex in Washington DC. He had recently departed Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Police stated that they are not considering Rapoport's death as suspicious, according to a report by Politico based in Washington, although the case is still being looked into.
Rapoport accumulated wealth during his time in Moscow before losing the Kremlin's approval, primarily because of his backing for opposition figure Alexei Navalny, as reported.
In 2017, Sergei Tkachenko, who was Rapoport's former business partner, also died by falling from the window of his Moscow apartment.
At least four medical professionals in Russia have fallen from windows during the COVID-19 outbreak, with just one managing to survive after sustaining serious injuries.
At least three cases where medical professionals jumped from hospital windows occurred within a two-week span between April and May 2020, according to media reports, which stated that they were protesting the working conditions during the most severe phase of the outbreak in the nation before these events.
In December 2020, Alexander Kagansky, a leading Russian scientist working on a new COVID-19 vaccine, was discovered deceased following a fall from his high-rise residence in St Petersburg.
As reported by Russian media, the police stated that Kagansky inflicted the wound on himself before leaping to his death.