Found dead, and under mysterious circumstances, another multi-million dollar Russian businessman. On Monday afternoon, Yuri Voronov, 61, was gunned down at his mansion in a very wealthy suburb of St. Petersburg. The Russian businessman had a gunshot wound to the head, and around him lay a Grand Power semi-automatic and several spent cartridges at the bottom of the pool. He became the latest member of the elite associated with the energy giant Gazprom to die since the start of the year. Yuri Voronov ran a logistics company that had contracts with Gazprom in the Arctic.
Deaths of former energy company employees shrouded in mystery
Yuri Voronov became the sixth Russian businessman linked to Gazprom to die under mysterious circumstances since the start of the year, two of whom died in the same suburb of St. Petersburg. But there is more general biographical data: nine deaths, the circumstances of which are yet to be established from the beginning of 2022. also target oligarchs linked to Novatek and Lukoil. The exception to the rule was Vasily Melnikov, owner of the medical equipment company MedStom, but whose death also received media attention, with investigators pointing to the usual cause: suicide. Vasily Melnikov and his wife, as well as their four- and ten-year-old children, were found with stab wounds on March 23.
The Russian Investigative Committee is investigating the circumstances of Voronov’s death and has already moved forward, according to magazine “The Independent”who so far attributes the murder to a “dispute with business associates”.
Yuri Voronov’s wife reportedly told investigators that the businessman believes contractors and partners are taking “a lot of money” from him. However, several deaths at other mansions near St. Petersburg sparked rumors that the murders were staged to look like suicides.
Alexander Tyulakov, also 61, a senior financial and security official at Gazprom, was found hanged in his home in the elite village of Leninsky by a friend in February. Investigators concluded that Oleksandr Tyulakov committed suicide, but local media noted that there were signs of beatings on the body, indicating a staged hanging.
You have to go back to before the start of the war in Ukraine to follow the trail of these mysterious deaths. Three weeks earlier, in the same residential complex, 60-year-old Leonid Shulman was found stabbed to death in the bathroom of his house. Shulman headed transport at Gazprom Invest, a subsidiary of the energy giant that handles his investment projects. Business Insider then wrote that a suicide note was left at the scene, the authenticity of which is questionable.
A month later, on the morning of February 25, the body of another Gazprom employee, Alexander Tyulakov, was found. It is reported that the police were removed from the scene by Gazprom’s security service. Suicide was later cited as the cause.
In early March, a Ukrainian oligarch was also found dead in his house. Michael Watford was 66 years old and made his fortune in oil and gas.
In April, just a day apart, two Russian oligarchs and their families were found dead: Vladislav Avaev and Sergei Protosenya. Former Vice President of Gazprombank Vladislav Avaev was found with gunshot wounds in his Moscow apartment. According to investigators, Avaev allegedly shot his wife and daughter before he shot himself. A little more than three kilometers away, Sergei Protosenya, a former member of the board of directors of the gas company Novatek, was also found hanged, and his wife and daughter were stabbed to death.
Billionaire and former chief executive of energy giant Lukoil Alexander Subbotin was already 43 years old when he was found dead this May in the basement of a shaman’s house in Mytishchi after an apparent heart attack. In the same month, Andrei Krukovsky died after falling off a cliff. He was only 37 years old and was the director resort Krasnaya Polyana.
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