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The president of the Russian oil giant Lukoil, who along with his company had criticized the invasion of Ukraine, would die Thursday after falling from the sixth floor window of a Moscow hospital.
Ravil Maganov died in what sources are calling a possible suicide after his body was found on the grounds of Moscow’s elite Central Clinical Hospital, according to Russian news reports.
A statement from Lukoil claims that Maganov “died after a serious illness” but did not provide any further information.
Citing an unnamed law enforcement source, the state news agency Tass reported that Maganov committed suicide after being hospitalized following a heart attack. RBK News also reported that police were investigating the president’s death as a possible suicide.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Lukoil’s board of directors was one of the few companies to call for a swift end to the armed conflict, calling it a “tragedy” and expressing sympathy for its victims.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lukoil President Ravil Maganov pose during an awards ceremony in the Kremlin in Moscow, November 21, 2019.
(Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / AFP via Getty Images)
Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Rebekah Koffler, author of “Putin’s Playbook”, told Fox News Digital that “we will never know exactly what happened to Maganov,” but noted that death by defenestration is “the manual. Russian intelligence standards “regarding the doctrine of” wet business “, the translation of a Russian term referring to bloodshed operations.
“Wet deals are targeted killings,” Koffler said. “Russia and formerly the former Soviet Union are known for orchestrating mysterious deaths of Kremlin opponents. It was done in various ways: blows to the back of the head, poisoning, forced suicide and other intricate forms of violent death. I have a whole. section in my book describing this doctrine and with high profile case examples. “
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Explaining that Russian news agencies are mostly controlled or at least influenced by the Russian government, Koffler noted that the Russian media “was unable to keep their story straight today about what happened in Maganov.”
A view of the Central Clinical Hospital where Lukoil president Ravil Maganov died of his injuries after falling from a sixth floor window in Moscow, Russia on September 1, 2022.
(Evgenii Bugubaev Agency / Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Interfax said he died, having fallen out of a window and Tass wrote that it was suicide. Another newspaper speculated that he was trying to get out of a balcony to smoke. The truth is that these tactics are deliberately designed to be stealth, so no investigators have been able to identify foul play. They are usually considered “tragic incidents.” Also part of the doctrine, “he said.
Maganov’s death follows a mysterious death similar to August, when Soviet-born businessman and Putin critic Dan Rapoport allegedly jumped to the death from his luxury apartment in Washington, DC. Like Maganov, Rapoport had publicly criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A former Lukoil top manager was found dead in the basement of a residence in a Moscow suburb in May.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
