Russian oil tycoon Ravil Maganov was ‘assassinated on Putin’s orders’, say claims

The chairman of Lukoil - Russia’s second largest oil firm - was “beaten before he was thrown out a window”, claims suggest. WARNING: GRAPHIC

Chilling claims have been made that oil tycoon Ravil Maganov, 67, was assassinated “with Vladimir Putin’s knowledge” when he ‘fell’ from the sixth floor of a Moscow hospital.

The chairman of Lukoil - Russia’s second largest oil company - was “beaten” before he was “thrown out of a window”, said General SVR Telegram channel.

“The reason for the murder was Maganov’s “special opinion” - which differed from Putin’s - regarding the creeping nationalisation of Lukoil.

“Putin not only knew about the preparation of the assassination attempt, but also gave his consent by approving the method and timing of the liquidation,” a post in the anti-Putin channel says.

It gave no evidence for its allegation, nor additional detail, but does claim inside knowledge from the Kremlin, which is reportedly seeking to close it down.

Ravil Maganov, chairman of Russian oil giant LUKOIL, died after falling from a window at Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow. Pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2019.

Strangely, Putin arrived at the elite Central Clinical Hospital soon after Maganov’s body was found.

He came to pay his last respects to final Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at the hospital on Tuesday.

Putin has refused a state funeral for Gorbachev and indicated he is too busy to attend Saturday’s farewell ceremony for the statesman.

Officially, police are investigating Maganov’s fall and are interrogating staff and patients at the Moscow hospital, as pro-state media outlets appeared in unison to stress there was nothing suspicions, noting that the oil executive - close to Lukoil’s oligarch founder Vagit Alekperov - had been suffering from heart problems.

The main public version of his death is that he took his own life while having an early morning smoke, with his wife in the next room at the hospital.

His death came on Alekperov’s 72nd birthday.

The theory Maganov’s demise was an assassination was echoed by Anastasia Kashevarova, co-founder of the independent Daily Storm media outlet, and a previous advisor to close Putin ally Vyacheslav Volodin, powerful speaker of the Russian parliament.

“It turned out that this was not a natural death, but a man-made one,” she posted to her 36,800 Telegram followers.

“Moreover, the death [was] on the birthday of Lukoil co-owner Vagit Alekperov.

Maganov’s body is seen outside the hospital building

“Moreover, death [was] on the day of Putin’s arrival to say goodbye to Gorbachev.

“This is some kind of ‘hello’ to our structures. But from whom?”

But Baza media, with law enforcement links, stated: “Sometimes an accident is just that - an accident.”

The dead tycoon’s younger brother Nail Maganov, 64, declined to comment but a source close to his Tatneft oil company was quoted by Readovka as saying: “His departure is certainly a tragedy, but it [such tragedies] happens.”

Yet suspicion also comes because of a number of other suspicious deaths - seen as suicides or domestic murders by the authorities - linked to energy companies since the build-up to Putin’s war in Ukraine.

In July, Yuri Voronov, 61, head of a transport and logistics company for a Gazprom-linked company, was found dead in his swimming pool, with a leading friend who is a top criminologist warning of foul play.

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg amid suspicions that apparent suicides may have been murders.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered by his lover the day after war started in Ukraine in February.

His neck was in a noose in his £500,000 home .

Yet reports say he had been badly beaten shortly before he “took his own life”, leading to speculation he was under intense pressure.

In the same elite Leninsky gated housing development in Leningrad region three weeks earlier, Leonid Shulman,, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, an ex-top manager of Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil and owner of a shipping company, was found dead in May after “taking advice from shamans”.

Ravil Maganov died earlier this week

One theory is that he was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.

In other cases, in April wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13.

He had high level links to leading Russian financial institution Gazprombank.

Friends have disputed reports that he was jealous after his wife admitted she was pregnant by their driver.

There are claims he had access to the financial secrets of the Kremlin elite.

Several days later multi-millionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, after evidently killing with an axe his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria.

He was a former deputy chairman of Novatek, a company also closely linked to the Kremlin.

As with Avayev, it is suggested this may have been an assassination made to appear a murder-and-suicide.

Last week a mobile phone multi-millionaire and his wife were found stabbed to death in another case that has raised questions.

Naked Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20.

Immediate briefing to the media claimed the woman took her own life in a jealous rage after Palant said he was leaving her.

Yet this was strongly disputed by the couple’s best friend.

General SVR channel has claimed that Putin is suffering from serious illnesses including cancer, Parkinson’s disease and a schizoaffective disorder.

It is reportedly authored by an exiled Kremlin lieutenant-general, who is known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich.