Novatek, Gazprom and Lukoil are some of the companies with which the oligarchs killed in recent months have been linked. The volume of reported cases, under circumstances to be established, has given rise to speculation.
Last week it became known about the death of the Russian oligarch. Alexander Subbotin, a former manager of energy company Lukoil, has launched an investigation, Russian news agency TASS said, adding that drug tests would be carried out. Saturday was found dead in a shaman’s basement in Mytishchi after an apparent heart attack. Newsweek. Also this month, Andrey Krukovsky died falling off a cliff told DW. He was only 37 years old and was the director resort Krasnaya Polyana.
In April, two Russian oligarchs were found dead along with their families, one day apart: Vladislav Avayev e Sergey Protosenya. Former Vice President of Gazprombank Vladislav Avaev found dead with gunshot wounds in his Moscow apartment, writes business insider. There is a version that Avaev shot his wife and daughter before committing suicide. A little more than three kilometers away, Sergei Protosenya, a former member of the board of directors of the gas company Novatek, was found hanged, and his wife and daughter were stabbed to death.
This is reported by the Spanish TV channel Telecinco. first investigations they also pointed out that the millionaire first killed his wife and daughter while they were sleeping and then committed suicide. But Novatek issued a statement in which Protosenya was called a family man: “Unfortunately, there are speculations on this subject in the media, but we are convinced that these speculations are not true. We hope that the Spanish authorities will conduct an impartial and detailed investigation to establish what happened.”
The investigation does not clarify the reasons
These were not the only cases that showed similarities. Death at the end of March Vasily Melnikov, owner of the medical device company MedStom. OUR CNN reported that the details of the death of the Melnikov family reported by the Russian newspaper Kommersant corresponded to what the Russian investigation reported: the man and his wife, as well as their four- and ten-year-old children, were found with stab wounds and lifeless until 23 March.
“[Os investigadores] are considering different versions of what happened, including the murder of children and a woman by Melnikov, followed by a “suicide,” Russian sources said, citing CNN. There were no signs of forcible entry into the apartment, but no additional information about the progress of the investigation was received.
One of the cases on this list predates the start of the war in Ukraine. In January, Leonid Shulman, from Gazprom, was found dead. In accordance with business insidera suicide note was left at the scene, the authenticity of which has been questioned.
A month later, the body of another Gazprom employee was found. The Ukrayinska Pravda publication indicates that the corps Alexander Tyulyakov, a manager of a Russian energy company, was found on the morning of 25 February. The police were allegedly expelled by Gazprom’s security service, and suicide was cited as the apparent reason.
In early March, a Ukrainian oligarch was also found dead in his house. It was about Michael Watford, who was 66 years old and made his fortune in oil and gas. “An investigation into the death is ongoing, but we do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances at this time,” a Surrey County Police spokesman said. There has been no indication that he has been sanctioned by the UK for his closeness to Putin or any Kremlin-led operation.
Speculation about Russian involvement
Various cases aroused suspicion. In an article published Warsaw Institutea analytical center in international cases it is alleged that the death was suspected of staging suicide, and the question arises of who can be held responsible. “Perhaps people associated with the Kremlin are covering up the traces of fraud in state-owned companies,” he concludes.
Bill Browder, an investor who made his fortune in Russia until he was blacklisted by the Kremlin in 2005, said Newsweek that “whenever big money is involved, assume the worst.” Browder argues that “there is enough empirical evidence” of murders organized by the Kremlin or business rivals in Russia to make these cases suspicious. But so far there is no evidence of outside involvement in either case.
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