Following on October 21's "Russian Oligarch (former V.P. of Yukos) Found Dead in Moscow after Falling Out of Window", we see this at The Week, October 22:
There have been 'at least 50' mysterious deaths of energy company executives since Putin ordered Ukraine invasion
Another prominent Russian businessman has died under mysterious
circumstances after apparently falling out of a window, the latest in a
string of similar unexpected deaths among Russian energy executives.
Mikhail Rogachev, the former vice-president of Yukos – once one of Russia's
foremost oil and gas companies – was found dead at the entrance to his
home in Moscow over the weekend. He was reportedly discovered by an
employee of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, with injuries
characteristic of a fall. The Russian state news agency said the
64-year-old, who lived on the tenth floor, had died by suicide. Police
are reportedly "studying" a suicide note, said The Times.
But these reports have been "vehemently" denied by Rogachev's relatives, said the Daily Mail. They insist there were no signs that Rogachev was suicidal, and that he was in a "good mood" before his death.
Unexplained tragedies
There have been "numerous" unexplained deaths of prominent Russians since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, said Newsweek. Unusually for a Russian company, Lukoil (Russia's second-largest oil producer) publicly criticised the invasion. The company's board of directors expressed "its deepest concerns about the tragic events in Ukraine" in a statement.In May, former top Lukoil manager
Alexander Subbotin died under "mysterious circumstances". The
44-year-old was found dead "in the basement of the home of a shaman",
after allegedly suffering a heart attack from consuming toad poison,
according to state-run Russian news agency Tass. The billionaire went to
the shaman's home "in a state of severe alcoholic and drug
intoxication" the day before his death, Tass reported, and his body was
seemingly used for "Jamaican voodoo rituals".
In September, Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Lukoil, was found dead
after falling from a hospital window in Moscow. But Lukoil said
Maganov, 67, had died "after a serious illness", but did not reference
his alleged fall – which "raised eyebrows among Russia watchers in the
West", said The Independent.
In
October 2023, Maganov's replacement Vladimir Nekrasov died aged 66 –
allegedly from acute heart failure. The following month, Vladimir
Lebedev, a senator with close ties to Lukoil, died in an unexplained
"terrible tragedy", aged 60. Vitaly Robertus, the vice-president of
Lukoil, died "suddenly" at the age of 54 in March this year. The cause
of his death remains unknown.
Multiple
businessmen linked to Gazprom, the world's largest publicly listed gas
company, also "died under mysterious circumstances" either during the
build-up to, or the immediate aftermath of, the invasion. In two cases
the executives' wives and children were found "gruesomely hacked to
death".
Since Gazprom transport
chief Leonid Shulman was found dead in his bathroom near St Petersburg,
just before the invasion, there have been "at least 50 deaths that
could be classified as suspicious", said The Times. Alexander Tyulakov, a
61-year-old executive at Gazprom, was found dead in the garage of his
St Petersburg home the morning after Russia invaded Ukraine....
....MUCH MORE
Cui bono?
