A wave of "suicide" in the elites of the Russian Federation. Lukoil Topmender has completed the list of mysterious deaths of oil and gas oligarchs of
The Russian oil giant Lukoil is the second largest oil production company in the Russian Federation after Gazprom. The death of the chairman of the board of directors Lukoil Ravil Maganov became known on September 1. Russian TV channel Ren reported that he had died by falling out of the Central Clinical Hospital (CCL) window in Moscow. This information was confirmed by the source of Interfax. “This morning [September 1] Maganov fell out of the window of the House.
He died of injuries, ”the agency's interlocutor said. It is reported that 67-year-old Maganov was treated in a ward located on the sixth floor of the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital. The Russian telegram-channel Mash has spread the version that Maganov could have committed suicide. At the same time, Lukoil, stating that Maganov's death, reported that he "died after a serious illness.
" Ravil Maganov is considered the author of the name Lukoil (from the first letters of the "oil" cities - Langepas, Uray, Kogali and English word Oil, oil). In the 1980s, Maganov worked at Langasnaftogaz, which later became part of Lukoil. Since Lukoil was created in 1991, Maganov has held management positions in this company. Since 1993 he has been a member of the Lukoil Board, since 2006 he held the position of the first executive Vice President of the company.
In 2020 he headed the Board of Directors of the Oil Giant - after the death of Valery Grifer, who held this position earlier. In 2019, Vladimir Putin awarded Maganov Order of Alexander Nevsky.
On June 21, the Russian tabloid Moscow Komsomolets reported that on the eve of the evening in his own apartment he tried to commit suicide Viktor Zimin-the publication called it the Colonel of the Federal Security Service (FSO) of the Russian Federation in his resignation and the "ex-chief of the Central Customs Department".
The publication reported that the incident allegedly occurred in the evening of June 20 in the suburbs of the Moscow suburb - the former military town 20 km west of the center of Moscow. “The nature of the injuries made it possible to conclude that he tried to voluntarily leave life. Prior to that, the owner, together with his brother, was drunk with alcohol, then the relative went to the next room, ”the Russian newspaper wrote.
According to her, 53-year-old Zimin survived, but was taken into serious condition (his brother allegedly called the ambulance). The MK also wrote that at the time of the suicide attempt, Zimin was under house arrest: he was suspected of receiving a bribe from a businessman, which was released in December 2021. Zimin denied his involvement in the crime.
The British tabloid Mirror cited more details of the resonant case, reminding that it was Victor Zimin who was even for Boris Yeltsin who wore a nuclear suitcase of the President of the Russian Federation-a portfolio, which always accompanies any Kremlin leader. With its help, the Kremlin owner can actually authorize the launch of nuclear missiles through the code system.
According to Mirror, Zimin continued to work in the security service after the arrival of Vladimir Putin, having reached for the rank of colonel, although his accurate role and responsibilities during this period are unknown. Tabloid specifies that Zimin tried to shoot: he was found with a gunshot wound to the head, a man was lying in a puddle of blood in his own apartment. A traumatic gun of Izh 79-9TM was allegedly found.
Whether the land survived after hospitalization in intensive care was not reported. On April 19, 55-year-old Sergiy Protosenya, a former deputy director of the Russian gas company Novatek, was found in the yard of his villa in Spain. In the same house, his 53-year-old wife Natalia and 18-year-old daughter Maria were found brutally killed: their bodies were found in beds with numerous chopped and cut wounds.
At the same time, near the body of the protosen were a knife and an ax, which was probably used by a murderer of women. The bloody tragedy happened in the popular among the Russian diaspora, the resort town of Lorret de Mar on the Catalan coast of Costa-Brava. Here the family had a country house, although in recent years they lived in French Bordeaux.
There, in France, at the time of the murder was a 22-year-old son of Protosen Fyodor: he did not go with his family on vacation to Spain, but lifted the police on his feet when one day could not call any of his family members. The Spanish police suggested that the tragedy could have happened against the backdrop of a family conflict (allegedly killed his wife and daughter, and then hanged himself).
However, law enforcement officers do not rule out what a triple murder happened, and the death of the head of the family was issued for suicide. The Spanish and other world media have drew attention to a number of strange circumstances of the death of three family members: the British tabloid Daily Mail spoke with the son of Protosen and family friends who excluded the possibility of killing two close women.
Fyodor Protosnya said that his father loved his mother and especially his sister Maria, who "was his princess. " “He could never do anything to harm them. I do not know what happened that night, but I know that my father did not harm them, ”the 22-year-old student said. They categorically do not believe that the protosphere could kill the family, businessman Anatoliy Tymoshenko, a close friend of the Russian oligarch, and his other friend Roman Yuravich.
Sergei Protosenya was a multimillioner and in 2006-2011 regularly included in the lists of 250 richest Russians. Novatek - a subsidiary of Gazprom and the second in Russia in terms of gas production - he has been working since 2002. In 2005 he joined the Board of Directors, in 2015 he left Novatek, later moved to France. In addition to the Russian passport, he had Cyprus.
Russian telegrams and media reported that part of the assets of Protosen was issued to the Cyprus company Viladex Finance Limited, and a week before his death before the Cyprus Registration Chamber was allegedly applied for a section of shares in the company. It is unknown whether this information of Russian propagandists is true.
In addition, according to the Telegram-channel Base, Sergei Protosnya at the end of November 2021 was the owner of the stocks of the battery forbank, who "crumbled the FSB". Just a day before the murder of Sergiy Protosen's family, April 18, it became known about another very similar case, but already in Moscow. In the Moscow apartments of the former Vice President of Gazprombank Vladislav Avayev found his body, as well as the bodies of his wife Elena and the daughter of Maria.
The cause of the death of three people were gunshot wounds. According to the previous version of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Avaev killed a woman and a girl, and then committed suicide. On the morning of April 18, he called a personal driver and asked him to drive, but did not open the door. The older daughter of the businessman came to the apartment after lunch and found her relatives. In the hand of Avayev allegedly lay a gun.
The same driver claimed that the boss was in a great mood, he did not notice anything strange about his behavior, said Starhit tabloid. The Russian telegram-channel 112 wrote that the motive of the murder was allegedly a protracted banker conflict with his wife. Like, Vladislav Avayev learned that his wife had a relationship with another husband and was pregnant.
Avayev worked for a long time in Gazprombank - the largest universal financial institution of the Russian Federation, completely under the control of Gazprom (now under US and EU sanctions). Almost nothing is known about his duties and the activity of the bank. Paradox_friends telegram statements claim that "Avayev was not so close to decision-making centers. " However, the position of Vice President provides a high level of awareness.
He was also a deputy director of the Russian Government Department for some time, and in recent years he has headed the carbonics company, which produces carbon implants. The partner of the company is Rostech corporation, informed the site MSK1. ru. Vasily Melnikov was found dead in his apartment in Nizhny Novgorod, and the Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote about March 23. He was also killed there by his wife Galina and their two young sons (4 and 10 years).
Everyone was killed by knife wounds, probable murder (knives) were removed at the crime scene. Children were found in the nursery, a woman in the bedroom. Neighbors and acquaintances of the killed assured that they did not notice conflicts between family members. Local police investigated the version that Melnikov killed his family and later himself. The businessman belonged to the company, which supplied medical equipment and materials for the laboratories of Medst.
On March 3, 66-year-old Michael Wotford (he is Mikhail Tolstoshey), whom British media is called a "Russian magnate", was discovered in his mansion in England (Surrey County). His death did not raise suspicion in the police, but the motive of suicide was not able to explain the British law enforcement officers, Daily Mail reported. UO Tford earned the wealth for oil and gas production in Russia.
In the early 2000s he emigrated to the United Kingdom, changed his last name and engaged in real estate. It has not entered the sanction list of Russian oligarchs, published by the British government after the war in Ukraine. However, the news of Watford's death appeared on the day Boris Johnson announced the House of Commons that would expand the list of people related to Vladimir Putin's regime, touched by British sanctions.
In a comment on the Sun, the family's friend suggested that the war in Ukraine could have been influenced by Russia, which was unleashed by Russia. The source of the publication stated that "his death raises questions, especially after all these suspicious deaths of Russian citizens [in Britain]. " "The time of his death and invasion of Ukraine, of course, [coincide] not accidentally," the newspaper said. Mikhail Tolstoshey was born in 1955 in Ukraine (at that time in the Ukrainian SSR).
On February 25, the body of 61-year-old Alexander Tyulakov-Deputy CEO of the Unified Center of Gazprom (Treasury of the Main Gas Vyropolis (Treasury of the Main Gazprom) was found in the cottage of the Leninsky Vyborg district of Leningrad region. He hung in the loop, and there was a death note nearby (its content was not disclosed).
When criminalists worked at the scene of Tyulakov, the Gazprom Security Service was approaching the house, surrounding the territory and banishing the employees of the investigative and police. According to the new newspaper, on the eve of his death he was seen very beaten. On January 29, a month before the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine in the same village of Leninsya, a 60-year-old head of the traffic service of Gazprom-Invest Leonid Shulmann was found.
A browned body with deep cut wounds lay on the floor in the bathroom, a construction knife was found near the bathroom. The police found a note in which Shulman complained of unbearable pain, the edition of the face reported. The man was on the hospital after the injury, he had an Ilizarov apparatus on his leg. The new newspaper wrote that investigators doubted the authenticity of the death note.
"In all cases, there are great suspicions that death could be artificially submitted as suicide, but who did it and why?" - Back in April, the main question of Grzegozh Kuchinsky, the director of the Eurasian program of the Warsaw Institute. He suggested that some high -ranking officials associated with the Kremlin may "sweep marks of fraud in state -owned companies.
" "If we see serious personnel permutations among Gazprom top executives, this hypothesis may be true," Kuchinski said, emphasizing that some cases are related to the oligarchs of the oil and gas sector. According to Paul Gobla, a former US Secretary of State, who at the end of June commented on a number of strange deaths of Voice of America and Radio Liberty, "what happens reflects the complete collapse of the value system in the Russian Federation.
" “Not only the government kills people, but also Russians kill the Russians for economic benefit. Both the government and dissatisfied employees or competitors can be killed, ”he said. Goble believes that a wave of mysterious "suicide" can be the result of changes in generations. “The Putin regime is young, after all, the leader is already 70, people around him are mostly one age. At this age, you begin to think about the successor. To whom are they going to pass on wealth? Next generation.
Getting rid of someone who could interfere with this process is very attractive to many, ”the former adviser to the US Secretary of State. The topics of strange deaths of influential Russians also touched on the new documentary of the Secrets of the Oligarch Wives (the secrets of oligarchs' wives), which was released on June 28 at the Paramount+video service. It tells about the partners of Russian oligarchs and what they witnessed, living in the highest circles of the Putin regime.
According to Newseek, the Russian banker Herman Gorbuntsov, who was part of the councils of several banks of the Russian Federation - one of those who called in this movie a number of mysterious deaths of oligarchs called a number of mysterious cases. "The killer himself invents the method when he is ordered to" remove "the family," Gorbuntsov says. - The methods are similar, but every time they differ a little - here the ax, there is a gun. [Eventually] they are still dead.
Once, maybe two could be a coincidence. But this [the turn of death] is not a coincidence. This is not suicide. " Gorbuntsov also told the filmmakers that they tried to attempt on his life after he left Russia. Obviously, it is an episode of 2012, when the unknown several times shot a banker near his house in London. Then Gorbuntsev received six bullet wounds, was in a coma, but survived.