Dmitry Zelenov, a Russian construction magnate, died on December 9 in Antibes, France. He became the second Russian oligarch to die in a fall down the stairs in less than three months.
The number of oligarchs killed under mysterious circumstances after the invasion of Ukraine continues to grow. In less than three months, four Russians close to the center of power died, two fell down the stairs.
The latest victim of these ridiculous incidents with Russian oligarchs was Dmitry Zelenov, who fell down the stairs after dinner with friends at a restaurant in Antibes on the French Riviera. The 50-year-old construction magnate was taken to the hospital but died from head injuries. The prosecutor of the neighboring city of Grasse announced the death.
According to British press reports, Zelenov was due to undergo heart surgery weeks before the fatal accident. The tycoon, co-founder of Don-Stroy, got rich quick and fast dominating the real estate market in Moscow.
The circumstances of Zelenov’s death are similar to those of Anatoly Gerashchenko, former director of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), who fell down the stairs at his workplace less than three months ago.
“On September 21, Anatoly Nikolaevich Gerashchenko died in an accident,” the institute said in a statement. “This is a huge loss for the IPM and the scientific and pedagogical community,” the document, quoted by the British press, says.
Gerashchenko, 73, has devoted his entire professional life to IPM, Russia’s premier research institute, the body responsible for developing aerospace technology and considered very close to Putin. He was also a respected teacher and renowned engineer, and was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland.
The strange death of Anatoly Gerashchenko comes less than two weeks after the death of the head of the Russian Arctic agency, who fell “overboard” while on a boat ride.
Ivan Pechorin, 39, was the CEO of the Corporation for the Development of the Arctic (CDA) and fell off his boat into the water off Russky Island, near Cape Ignatiev, Russian news agency Pravda reported.
Pechorin’s body was found at sea less than a day after falling from the boat. “Ivan’s death is an irreplaceable loss for friends and colleagues, a great loss for the corporation,” the organization said in a statement.
Pechorin was in power for about seven months. He was appointed CEO of the CDA in February, following the death of the previous CEO, Igor Nosov, at the age of 43, who died of a stroke.
September has been particularly difficult for Russians close to power since the news of the death of 67-year-old Ravil Maganov. The oil tycoon reportedly fell out of a sixth-floor window in a Moscow hospital.
Maganov was chairman of Lukoil, Russia’s second largest oil company, which opposed the invasion of Ukraine. According to a report published by the world press, the tycoon would have been beaten before he fell out of the window. An incident recorded shortly after Putin visited the Central Hospital clinic to honor the memory of Mikhail Gorbachev, the president who opened Russia to the world, who died in that hospital.
Alexander Subbotin, a top manager at Lukoil, was found dead in May. The 43-year-old billionaire associated with the Kremlin and who owned a shipping company has reportedly died of a heart attack. The fatal heart attack is believed to have been caused by the poison.
Deaths in the energy sector also affected Gazprom. Oleksandr Tyulakov, 61, a top executive at a Russian state gas company, was found dead by his mistress the day after the invasion of Ukraine in a palatial home in St. Petersburg.
In April, one of the most shocking deaths occurred: Vladislav Avaev, a former Kremlin official, reportedly committed suicide by stabbing his wife, Yelena, 47, and their 13-year-old daughter.
A few days later, 55-year-old multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya was found hanged in Spain after killing his 53-year-old wife Natalia and their teenage daughter with an axe.
These are just a few examples of the mysterious deaths that have plagued Russian tycoons this year following Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Even before the start of the war, at dawn in February, Leonid Shulman, the head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in the bathroom of the house, in the same condominium where Tyukalov lived.
