The demise of a prime Russian oil govt this week is the newest in a string of oil executives in the nation who have reportedly died from suicide or in accidents this 12 months.
Russian media outlets reported that Ravil Maganov, the chairman of the board of Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, died on Thursday after falling out of a window at a hospital where he was being treated. TASS, the state-run news agency, reported that an unnamed law enforcement source said Maganov died by suicide.
Maganov was being treated at the hospital after having a heart attack and was taking antidepressants, TASS reported.
Lukoil is one of the few companies that have publicly criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for an end to the conflict in March. More than half a dozen other oil executives have died this year under unclear circumstances.
Here are the Russian oil executives who have died mysteriously in the past nine months:
Leonid Shulman
Leonid Shulman, a top executive for the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, was found dead of a reported suicide in a cottage in the village of Leninsky on Jan. 30.
Russian media reported that a suicide note was found at the scene. The note reportedly said that Shulman had unbearable pain in a broken leg.
Alexander Tyulakov
Alexander Tyulakov, another top executive for Gazprom, was found dead in the same village almost a month later in a garage. An independent Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, reported that his death appeared to be a suicide.
He was also reportedly seen badly beaten on the night before his death.
Novaya Gazeta reported that Leninsky is considered an exclusive estate for top Gazprom executives.
Mikhail Watford
Ukraine-born oligarch Mikhail Watford, who became a billionaire through the oil and gas industry, was found dead three days after Tyulakov at his home in England. Local British officers reportedly said at the time that they considered his death to be unexplained but not suspicious.
Vladislav Avayev
Vladislav Avayev, the former vice president of Gazprombank, one of the largest banks in Russia, which has ties to the energy industry, was found dead in his apartment in Moscow along with his wife and daughter on April 18.
Police reportedly found a pistol in Avayev’s hands, leading them to consider the incident a case of murder-suicide.
Sergei Protosenya
A similar incident occurred one day after Avayev’s death when Sergei Protosenya, a former deputy chairman of Novatek, a Russian natural gas firm, was found hanged while his wife and daughter were found stabbed to death, according to Radio Free Europe, a U.S. government-funded media outlet.
They were found at a villa in Spain. Police were investigating the death as a murder-suicide, but Protosenya’s son rejected the theory, saying that his father was not a killer and would by no means harm his household, the British tabloid the Daily Mirror reported.
Alexander Subbotin
Former prime Lukoil govt Alexander Subbotin was discovered lifeless in May in the basement of a home close to Moscow. TASS reported that Subbotin lost consciousness as a result of a heart attack, and police opened a criminal investigation into his death.
Yury Voronov
Yury Voronov, the head of a transport and logistics firm that holds contracts with Gazprom for the Arctic area, was discovered lifeless in a swimming pool at his residence in July.
He was discovered with a gunshot wound to the head, and a pistol was discovered close by, in accordance with native media. Some shell casings have been discovered at the backside of the pool.
His spouse reportedly instructed police that Voronov started abusing alcohol in the two weeks main as much as his demise, and he had misplaced some huge cash throughout that point in disagreements with contractors.
