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Powerful Russians continue to be killed in an increasingly bizarre series of casualties following criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A number of businessmen have died in recent months as the Russians are increasingly dissatisfied with the protracted invasion of Ukraine. Ivan Pechorin, chief executive of the aviation industry at the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and Arctic, died on September 12 after falling from a racing boat off the coast of Vladivostok.
Ravil Maganov, president of the Russian oil giant Lukoil, died after falling from the sixth floor window of a Moscow hospital on September 1. He and his company had urged Putin to end the invasion, calling it a “tragedy”. Lukoil said Maganov “died after a serious illness”.
Aleksandr Subbotin, a former Lukoil top manager, was found dead in the basement of a Moscow residence in May after allegedly visiting a healer to cure him of hangover symptoms, but instead suffered from heart failure.
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At least eight other Russian oligarchs have died in strange circumstances in recent months, according to Euro News. International investigators have suggested viewing the deaths as staged suicides or murders in retaliation for their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine or links to corruption in the Russian gas company Gazprom.
President Vladimir Putin ordered a total invasion of Ukraine by Russia just eight months after TIME magazine announced that President Biden is ready to face the Russian leader.
(Sputnik, photo of the Kremlin pool via AP)
Leonid Shulman, head of Gazprom Invest’s transportation service, was found dead in February before the invasion. Authorities said they found a suicide note next to the executive, who reportedly cut his wrists in the bathroom of his St. Petersburg cottage.
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The morning after the invasion began, authorities found Alexander Tyulyakov, a senior executive at Gazprom’s Corporate Security, hanged in his garage. An unnamed law enforcement source told the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that Gazprom’s security unit had arrived before the police.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stands next to oil producer Lukoil Ravil Maganov’s First Executive Vice President after decorating him with the Order of Alexander Nevsky at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on November 21, 2019.
(Sputnik / Mikhail Klimentyev / Kremlin via Reuters ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY THIRD PARTIES.)
Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and author of “Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America,” told Fox News Digital at the time of Pechorin’s death that “the truth is unlikely to be discovered because it can’t. trust the Russian investigations. “
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“If this were a successful job, it would have made it look exactly like a tragic accident,” Koffler explained.
Alexei Miller, chief executive of Russian state giant Gazprom, attends an annual shareholders’ meeting at Gazprom headquarters in Moscow, Russia on Friday, June 27, 2014.
(Photo AP / Alexander Zemlianichenko)
He also noted that the Russian media “failed to keep the story straight today about what happened to Maganov” when he died, explaining that Russian news agencies are mostly controlled or at least influenced by the Russian government.
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“The truth is that these tactics are deliberately designed to be stealthy, so no investigator could identify foul play. They are usually considered ‘tragic incidents’. [which is] also part of the doctrine, “he said.
Paul Best and Jon Brown of Fox News contributed to this report.
