Two Russian men, including a millionaire Member of Parliament, died in India's Odisha's state within two days.
Russian MP and millionaire Pavel Antov died on Saturday after falling from his hotel's third floor.
Just two days before Antov's death, his fellow Russian traveller Vladimir Bidenov was also found dead in his room.
These deaths are the latest in the long line of suspicious deaths of Russian business figures. Up to 17 top Russian executives are known to have died suspiciously over the last year, as per a report.
Who was Pavel Antov, what's known of his death?
Pavel Antov runs a food processing business in Russia and is a Member of Parliament.
Pavel was travelling in Odisha as part of a group of four Russians, reports BBC, which adds he was fairly well known in the Russian city of Vladimir, east of Russian capital Moscow.
Though the Russian government has said it does not see criminal involvement in Pavel's death, the death is curious as it's the latest case of Russian business figures dying, often by falling out of windows. Moreover, the BBC reports that Pavel also reportedly criticised Putin last year which he denied.
The BBC reports, "Last summer he denied criticising Russia's war in Ukraine after a message appeared on his WhatsApp account...Late last June he appeared to react to a Russian missile attack on a residential block in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv that left a man dead and his seven-year-old daughter and her mother wounded. A WhatsApp message on Antov's account described how the family were pulled out of the rubble: "It's extremely difficult to call all this anything but terror."
The BBC adds that several Putin critics have died in Russia.
"The millionaire's death is the latest in a series of unexplained deaths involving Russian tycoons since the start of the Russian invasion, many of whom have openly criticised the war," notes BBC.
The world of Russian oligarchs
Many of those whose deaths have been mysterious have been connected to the Russian oil and energy industry, both state-owned and private. These people are often part of the Russian oligarchy.
Oligarch is the term used to refer to very wealthy persons in Russia who are socially and politically influential. They are also often well-connected to top Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin.
In March, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union sanctioned 38 Russian oligarchs linked to Putin, as per Business Insider.
Putin is known to reward loyalist oligarchs and punish those he does not want to favour, notes Forbes.
Forbes reports, "A newer group of oligarchs became wealthy through their ties to Putin, who has ruled Russia in one form or another since 2000. Putin has alternately enriched and punished oligarchs, treating tycoons and their businesses as pawns in his political chess matches. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then Russia’s richest man, was arrested in 2003 for tax crimes after he supported Putin’s political rival. However, many of today’s oligarchs are current or former Putin officials. Yuri Kovalchuk, a longtime friend and advisor to Russia’s leader, obtained large stakes in insurance and media companies through his ties to Putin."
The long list of mysterious deaths
In May, two Russian oligarchs died mysteriously in two days. Both of them were said to have died by suicide after killing their family.
The Insider reported that Russian oligarch Sergey Protosenya was found dead in Spain alongside his wife and daughter.
The previous day, another oligarch Vladislav Avayev was found dead in Moscow along with his wife and daughter.
The theory at the time was that it was a case of oligarchs dying by suicide after killing family persons, reported Insider, adding that it was disputed by Sergey's son.
Here are some of the others who have mysteriously died:
- Vasily Melnikov was found stabbed to death along with his wife and two sons in Russia on March 23. The Russian police said at the time it was a case of murder-suicide, just like Sergey's and Avayev.
- Mikhail Watford was found hanging dead in England on February 28. He was Ukrainian-born, notes Insider.
- Alexander Tyulyakov was found hanging dead in Russia's St. Petersburg on February 25. He was an executive for Russian energy giant Gazprom and a report said he was being seen being beaten before his death, notes Insider.
- Leonid Shulman was also a top Gazprom executive found hanging dead in a case of apparent suicide.
- Alexander Subbotin was a former top executive of Russian oil company Lukoil and was found dead at a shaman's place.
- Yuri Voronov, head of a Gazprom sub-contrator firm, died in July. He was found floating dead in his swimming pool with gunshot wounds and a pistol nearby, reported The Daily Mail at the time.
"He is at least the sixth wealthy Russian businessman to die in mysterious circumstances since the start of the year, many of them with links to Gazprom, and two of whom died in the same St Petersburg suburb as Voronov," noted The Mail at the time. - Ravil Maganov, chairman of Russian private oil giant Lukoil, died on September 1 after he fell out of a window of a hospital, reports BBC.
"Maganov is the latest of a number of high-profile business executives to die in mysterious circumstances...Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Lukoil board called for the conflict to end as soon as possible, expressing its sympathy to victims of 'this tragedy'," noted BBC at the time.
A Slate article in October noted that a total of 17 such persons have died so far.
Theories behind Russian businessmen's deaths
There are multiple theories explaining these deaths, with one being that these are likely ordered by Putin and another being that these are part of a power struggle within the Russian elite circles.
Russian affairs expert Stanislav Markus told Vox, "We can almost certainly rule out the official explanation of the deaths as suicides or poor health."
Vox's Cameron Peters admits that some cases might indeed be suicides but says that most experts say the sheer number of such near-identical deaths mean the official explanations are not accurate.
Peters explains the two theories, with one saying these deaths are ordered by Putin, who has been connected to killings or attempted killings, such as that of Sergei Skripal, Alexei Navalny, and Sergei Magintsky. The second theory says the deaths are a part of Russian elites' power struggle.
Peters explains Russia critic Bill Browder's theory: "The pressure of sanctions has created a financial crunch for Putin, and the deaths of businessmen are a particularly brutal way to revive streams of funding for the conflict — particularly from Russia’s oil and gas industry."
Of the second theory, Peters writes: "The recent run of deaths among Russia’s business elite could well be disguised killings — but the killings may be a product of Russia’s tangled political and economic structures, which are newly under pressure from Russia’s war in Ukraine, more than of any specific, overarching agenda."
Syracuse University professor Brian Taylor told Vox these killings could be related to "shady business, attempt to cover tracks, attempt to wipe out a competitor, trying to maybe get rid of someone who’s inconvenient at a time when there’s a lot of pressure on state-affiliated companies, especially in the oil and gas sector, but also in the defense sector".
All of these theories and lists of deaths, however, carry one caveat. There is no free press in Russia and correct information is very hard to find. Views expressed by experts abroad are therefore mostly their assessments of the situations seen from a distant, rather than facts found in ground-reporting.
