Another executive at Russia's second-largest oil company has died under mysterious circumstances. The Lukoil tycoon is the third person to die under suspicious circumstances in less than a year and a half.
Vladimir Nekrasov, 66, the chairman of Lukoil's board of directors, died “suddenly” and Russian state media reported doctors' “preliminary” conclusion that he was suffering from “acute heart failure.”
His death follows that of Rabil Maganov, 67, who was admitted to the Central Clinical Hospital, also known as the Kremlin Clinic, last September.
Officially, Maganov, who had been hospitalized for a long-standing heart condition, fell from a sixth-floor window and died on the spot.
The same morning, President Vladimir Putin, who had earlier bestowed the highest honor on Mr. Maganov, rushed into the hospital to pay his final respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union's last leader, who died the same week.
Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, also had ties to energy giant Lukoil, where he was a top manager, and was found dead in May after “receiving advice from a shaman.”
One theory is that Sabotin, who also ran a shipping company, was poisoned by toads and suffered a heart attack.
Mr. Vladimir Nekrasov, Chairman of the Lukoil Board of Directors
Mr. Nekrasov receives honor from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
Lukoil Vice President Rabil Maganov and President Vladimir Putin (left)
Lukoil manager Alexander Subotin
At the beginning of the war, Lukoil appeared to have little loyalty to Putin and demanded negotiations to end the fighting.
A week after the fighting began, the company's board of directors, including Messrs. Nekrasov and Messrs. Maganov, issued a statement regarding Putin's invasion, saying they expressed “concern over the ongoing tragic events in Ukraine and the impact of this tragedy.” He expressed his deepest sympathies to all those affected.
“We are in favor of an early cessation of the armed conflict and fully support a resolution through the negotiation process and diplomatic means.”
At Lukoil, there were claims of “creeping nationalization.''
Mr. Nekrasov was honored by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and was appointed chairman by Mr. Maganov.
At the time, he was vice president of Lukoil and had previously been awarded the Order of Merit of the Fatherland, 4th degree.
Nekrasov holds two separate EU passports, one from Austria and one from the Czech Republic, as well as Russian citizenship, allowing him to avoid Western sanctions over the war.
Since the start of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, there have been a number of deaths of prominent Russians connected to the energy and financial sectors.
Among other incidents, in April, wealthy former Kremlin official Vladislav Abaev, 51, apparently killed his wife Elena, 47, and daughter, 13, before taking his own life. It will be done.
He had high-level ties to Russian financial institution Gazprombank.
Friends dispute reports that he was jealous after his wife was confirmed pregnant by his driver.
There are claims that he had access to the financial secrets of the Kremlin elite.
Days later, billionaire Sergei Protsenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain after allegedly murdering his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria in a gruesome suicide attempt with an axe.
He is a former vice chairman of Novatek, a company with close ties to the Kremlin.
As with Abayev, it has been suggested that this may have been an assassination disguised as a murder-suicide.
Mobile phone millionaire Evgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both born in Ukraine, were found by their daughter Polina, 20, with multiple knife wounds. .
Vladislav Abaev, 51, a former Kremlin official and deputy head of Gazprombank, is believed to have killed his wife and daughter in April before taking his own life.
Russian gas tycoon Sergei Protosenya was found dead in his Spanish mansion along with his 53-year-old wife Natalia and teenage daughter Maria.
Ukrainian-born billionaire Evgeny Palant (47) and his wife Olga Palant (50) were found stabbed to death in their family home in the Moscow region.
Other notable opaque deaths of Russian elites include Dmitry Zelenov, who died on December 9 in the town of Antibes on the French Riviera.
The circumstances surrounding the real estate mogul's death are very similar to those of Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former director of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), who is said to have fallen down the stairs at the institute's headquarters in the Russian capital in September. resemble.
“On September 21, 2022, Anatoly Nikolayevich Gerashchenko, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor and Advisor to the Rector of the Moscow Institute of Aviation, died in an accident,” the organization's press service announced.
“This is a huge loss to MAI and the scientific and educational community.”
MAI is one of Russia's leading scientific research universities, responsible for the development of aerospace technology, and has close ties to President Putin's Ministry of Defense.
Mr. Gerashchenko, 73, has worked with the institute his entire life, attending university as an engineer and working there for eight years before joining its operations.
He is a recipient of Russia's Order of Merit of the Fatherland, 1st class, a distinguished professor with more than 50 scientific publications, and remained an influential advisor after his retirement in 2015.
Zelenov, 50, had been out to dinner with friends when he became unwell and fell down the stairs, sustaining serious head injuries, according to Russian news outlet Baza and local French news outlet Val Matin. .
He was rushed to hospital, but doctors were unable to save him and he was pronounced dead the next day by the coroner's office in the nearby city of Grasse.
Russian oligarch Dmitry Zelenov reportedly died after falling down a flight of stairs in France.
Anatoly Gerashchenko, former director of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), reportedly slipped and fell down the stairs at the institute's headquarters in the Russian capital.
Ivan Pechorin (left), a key figure in President Vladimir Putin's Arctic development efforts, died after “falling” into the sea from a boat near Vladivostok.Igor Nosov, CEO of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, also reportedly died in his early 40s from a “stroke.”
Gerashchenko's highly suspicious death comes less than two weeks after President Vladimir Putin's chief of staff for Russia's vast Arctic resource development “fell” while sailing off the country's Pacific coast.
Ivan Pechorin, 39, is the executive director of President Putin's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation and was recently in Vladivostok attending a large conference organized by Kremlin warmongers.
The pair are the latest in a string of suspicious deaths in recent months of senior officials in Russia's energy, technology and financial sectors with ties to the Kremlin.
Pechorin fell off the side of the boat in waters near Russky Island, near Cape Ignatiev, Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.
His body was discovered after a search that lasted more than a day.
“Ivan's death is an irreparable loss and a great loss to his friends and colleagues,” the company's official statement said.
“My deepest condolences to his family and friends.”
The company's former CEO, Igor Nosov, 43, also reportedly died suddenly of a stroke in February.
