The death of a top Russian oil executive this week is the latest in a string of the country’s oil executives who are believed to have died by suicide or in accidents this year.
Russian media reported that Ravil Maganov, chairman of the board of directors of Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, died on Thursday after falling from the window of a hospital where he was being treated. TASS, the state news agency, reported that an unnamed police source said Maganov had committed suicide.
Maganov was being treated in hospital after suffering a heart attack and taking antidepressants, TASS reported.
Lukoil is one of the few companies to 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 in unclear circumstances.
Here are the Russian oil executives who died mysteriously in the past nine months:
Leonid Shulman
Leonid Shulman, a top executive of Russian state energy company Gazprom, was found dead of a reported suicide at a cottage in the village of Leninsky on January 30.
Russian media reported that a suicide note was found at the scene. The note reportedly said Shulman was in excruciating pain in a broken leg.
Alexander Tyulakov
Alexander Tyulakov, another top Gazprom executive, was found dead in the same village nearly a month later in a garage. An independent Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, reported that her death appeared to be a suicide.
He was also reportedly seen beaten up the day before his death.
Novaya Gazeta reported that Leninsky is considered an exclusive domain for top Gazprom executives.
Mikhail Watford
Ukrainian-born oligarch Mikhail Watford, who became a billionaire thanks to 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 unexplained but not suspicious.
Vladislav Avaev
Vladislav Avayev, the former vice president of Gazprombank, one of Russia’s biggest banks, which has ties to the energy industry, was found dead in his Moscow apartment with his wife and daughter April 18.
Police reportedly found a gun in Avayev’s hands, leading them to consider the incident a case of murder-suicide.
Sergei Protosenya
A similar incident occurred a day after Avayev’s death when Sergei Protosenya, former vice president of Novatek, a Russian natural gas company, was found hanged while his wife and daughter were found stabbed to death. , according to Radio Free Europe, a US government. funded media.
They were found in a villa in Spain. Police were investigating the death as a murder-suicide, but Protosenya’s son dismissed the theory, saying his father was not a killer and would never harm his family, the British tabloid Daily Mirror reported.
Alexandre Subbotin
Lukoil’s former top executive, Alexander Subbotin, was found dead in May in the basement of a house near Moscow. TASS reported that Subbotin lost consciousness following a heart attack and police have opened a criminal investigation into his death.
Yuri Voronov
Yuri Voronov, the boss of a transport and logistics company that holds contracts with Gazprom for the Arctic region, was found dead in a swimming pool at his home in July.
He was found with a gunshot wound to the head and a gun was found nearby, according to local media. Casings were found at the bottom of the pool.
His wife allegedly told police that Voronov had started abusing alcohol in the two weeks before his death and that he had lost a lot of money during this time due to disagreements with contractors.
