At that time, the head of the Kremlin awarded the manager a medal.
(Photo: imago images/ITAR-TASS)
Moscow The series of mysterious deaths in Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. On Monday it became known that the chairman of the supervisory board of the largest private Russian oil company Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, had been found dead in front of an open window of Moscow’s central hospital.
Lukoil announced that Maganov died of a heart attack at Moscow Central Hospital, the same clinic where Mikhail Gorbachev died the night before.
Meanwhile, Russian broadcaster Ren TV and other media reported that Maganov fell out of the window. Different versions circulate as to whether it was a suicide, Maganov fell out of an open sixth-floor window while smoking, or whether he was pushed down.
The 67-year-old has worked at Lukoil since the company was founded, and he developed the name from the first letters of the group’s three main production cities.
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Maganov’s mysterious death is one in a series of alleged suicides by prominent Russian managers and entrepreneurs. According to Russian media, Lukoil manager Alexander Subbotin died before him in May, allegedly during an occult treatment for alcohol addiction.
The question of murder or suicide is always there
The former deputy director of the Russian gas company Novatek also died in the spring: On April 19, Sergei Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in the courtyard of his villa in Spain. His 53-year-old wife Natalia and 18-year-old daughter Maria were found brutally murdered in the same home.
Striking: There was a lot of blood at the crime scene, but not a single stain on the hanged man’s clothing. The Novatek company is under the control of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s close friend Gennady Timchenko.
A day earlier, on April 18, the bodies of Vladislav Avayev, a former vice president of Gazprombank, his wife Elena and daughter Maria were found. Before his job at the bank of the state-controlled gas company, Avayev was deputy chief of administration for the presidential department – a position that Putin himself held when he moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
Similar fates had alarmed in March: Vasily Melnikov, his wife Galina and their two small sons (four and ten years old) were found murdered in Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga. The owner of the medical technology dealer Medstom is said to have killed himself and his family, police claimed. But the crime knife was not found.
Escaped Gazprombank manager doubts official causes of death
In the same month, Mikhail Tolstosheya also died: he was found dead at his home in Surrey, England. The news came on the day British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would expand the sanctions list of people linked to the Putin regime. Tolstosheya, who changed his name to Mikhail Watford, made his fortune from oil and gas exploration in Russia.
Other mysterious deaths included the alleged suicides of Alexander Tyulyakov, Deputy Director General of Gazprom’s Treasury, and Leonid Shulman, top manager at Gazprom Invest.
In a video interview published on YouTube at the end of April, Gazprombank’s longtime deputy head Igor Volobuyev doubted that these were suicides. Shortly before, Volobuyev had fled to Ukraine and announced that he wanted to fight Russian troops there.
More: “I want to wash myself clean”: Gazprom manager changes sides and is now fighting for Ukraine
We report only very reluctantly on possible suicides or suicide attempts. If you feel affected yourself, please contact the telephone counseling service immediately (www.telefonseelsorge.de). On the free hotline 0800-1110111 or 0800-1110222 you can get help from advisors who have already been able to point out ways out of difficult situations in many cases.