Chilling clues that seven Russian oligarchs were murdered on the orders of paranoid Vladimir Putin
Wealthy Russians have been dying in mysterious circumstances. And there are clues pointing to Vladimir Putin. Warning: Graphic.
Warning: Graphic content.
At least seven Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin may have been murdered as the president purges his inner circle of former wealthy allies.
Since the start of the year, several of Putin’s cronies have died in mysterious circumstances, The Sun reports.
But sources believe they may have actually been murdered as it’s claimed there were similarities in their deaths.
The latest apparent victim was Ivan Pechorin - Putin’s point man for developing Russia’s vast Arctic resources.
He fell off the side of a boat in waters close to Russky Island in mysterious circumstances, it is reported.
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It came just weeks after oil boss Ravil Maganov died after “falling from a hospital window”.
The 64-year-old, who was head of Russian oil giant Lukoil, reportedly died after falling from a sixth-floor window at Moscow’s Central Clinic Hospital.
Lukoil, which had earlier criticised the war in Ukraine, confirmed Maganov’s death, but bizarrely put it down instead to some unknown illness.
A picture shared online reportedly showed a body bag containing Maganov’s corpse on the ground by the hospital wall.
The anti-Kremlin Telegram channel General SVR claimed that Maganov had been killed on Putin’s orders.
It was reported that his wife was in the next room at the time of his death, and there were no CCTV cameras pointing at the building at the point where he fell.
Law enforcement sources reportedly said that no suicide note was discovered at the scene.
But those are just the latest mysterious death among the Kremlin’s former inner circle since the run-up to the war in Ukraine.
On February 25 - the day after Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine - the body of Alexander Tyulakov, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at the deputy general director level - was discovered dead by his lover.
The 61-year-old’s neck was in a noose in his $850,000 (£500,000) home.
Just three weeks prior - in the same elite gated housing development in the Leningrad region - Leonid Shulman, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead.
The 60-year-old was discovered with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.
Meanwhile, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, an ex-vice-president of Gazprombank and former Kremlin official, was found shot dead in his elite Moscow penthouse.
And days later, Sergei Protosenya, 55, was found dead by hanging in Spain.
Protosenya was a former deputy chairman of Novotek, a company closely linked to the Kremlin.
And in March, the body of Russian billionaire Vasily Melnikov was found in his luxury apartment with stab wounds in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.
Here are the clues which suggest the seven may have been murdered amid fears Putin is purging his inner circle as his invasion of Ukraine continues to stall.
‘Similarities’ in deaths
At least five of the alleged suicides have all been labelled as “suspicious” by Russian sources - including a former FSB colonel on the Telegram messaging channel.
Writing on Mozhem Obyasnit - which means We Can Explain - Gennady Gudkov claimed there were similarities in the passing of top managers and their families from senior gas companies.
He claimed: “Don’t let the ‘rats’ escape, they might talk.
“If we already understand that the regime is engaged in the elimination of its opponents and enemies, then why will they not deal with those who are considered traitors who have fled the system.
“Many cases of [suspicious deaths] are like settling scores.”
Families found dead
In the two most recent macabre incidents, the families of the two oligarchs have been killed - raising suspicions that the “suicides” were staged.
Vladislav Avayev, 51, was found shot dead along with his wife Yelena, 47, and his 13-year-old daughter Maria at their home in Moscow.
The bodies were discovered by Avayev’s eldest daughter Anastasia, 26, alongside a total of 13 different weapons.
A law enforcement source said that a gun was found in Avayev’s hand.
Kremlin analyst Olga Lautman said that Avayev previously worked in Putin’s presidential administration, as well as in the parliament, or Duma.
Meanwhile, in a chilling echo of Avayev’s death, Russian tycoon Sergey Protosenya, 55, his wife Natalya, 53, and his 18-year-old daughter Maria were discovered dead at their luxury Spanish villa.
Protosenya, who boasted a fortune of over $566 million (£333 million), did not leave a suicide note before allegedly hanging himself in the courtyard.
Natalia and Maria had been hacked to death in their beds with an axe in the Lloret de Mar on Spain’s Costa Brava, according to reports.
Police found the gruesome scene after the couple’s teenage son, who was in France at the time, raised concerns.
Alleged inconsistencies at the crime scene and the coincidental death of two gas oligarchs and their families in a matter of days have raised suspicions.
Oligarch ‘badly beaten’ before death
Just one day after Putin invaded Ukraine, the body of Gazprom deputy general director Alexander Tyulakov was found.
His hung body was discovered by his lover in his $850,000 (£500,000) home in Leningrad.
But according to reports, he had been badly beaten before his death - raising speculation over how he died.
Knife ‘out of reach’
In the same gated housing development in the Leningrad region, Leonid Shulman - head of transport at Gazprom Invest - was found dead on January 29.
He was discovered with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.
A note was found, the contents of which have not been disclosed, and the Russian Investigative Committee reportedly refused to discuss the deaths.
It’s reported a knife was found in the bathtub, seemingly out of reach.
‘Links to the Kremlin’
Suspicions have been raised over the five deaths as they come amid a shake-up in ownership in Russian business.
The change was triggered by Western sanctions which have frozen many fortunes.
Engineer and economist Protosenya had been chief accountant of Novatek company, the largest independent producer of natural gas in Russia, between 2002 and 2014, and later vice president.
He had a fortune of $748 million (£440 million), it is claimed.
Novatek is co-owned by close Putin friend Gennady Timchenko and the privileged giant had been recently excluded from the Kremlin leader’s edict to trade energy only in rubles.
The company is also closely linked to Pyotr Kolbin, a Putin childhood friend, allegedly a “shadow holder of Putin’s wealth”.
“So, under strange and similar circumstances, the families of managers of two key private companies managing the money of Putin’s entourage died,” stated Mozhem Obyasnit.
‘Struggle to believe’
In March, the bodies of Russian billionaire Vasily Melnikov and his wife and two sons were discovered in his luxury apartment in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 250 miles east of Moscow.
All died from stab wounds, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
The paper quoted police investigators, who said they had determined that Melnikov killed his family before committing suicide.
However, neighbours and relatives have since come forward and said they struggle to believe Melnikov could have done something so evil.
The businessman had been an executive at medical firm MedStom, which had suffered greatly as a result of economic sanctions placed on Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian publication Glavred.
Putin critic found dead
Early in March, just a week into the war, police in Surrey were called to the posh house of a Ukrainian business tycoon Mikhail Watford.
The 66-year-old was found hanged at his £18m home on the exclusive Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water.
A neighbour of Mikhail claimed he had told her that Putin had put him on a hit list.
She also said Mr Watford, known as Misha, had been a pal of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, found hanged at his home in Ascot, Berks, in 2013.
Mr Watford told her Berezovsky had been murdered by an intelligence agency. The neighbour went on: “I find it hard to believe that Misha would have taken his own life. It doesn’t add up.”
This story was published by The Sun and reproduced with permission.
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