Russian oligarch linked to Gazprom found dead
Created: 07/07/2022, 05:15
The Gazprom logo can be seen on a branch of the Russian state-owned company in St. Petersburg.
A Russian oligarch with ties to Gazprom has now apparently been found dead.
© picture alliance/dpa |
Igor Russak
The Russian oligarch Yuri Voronov was found dead with a shot in the head in St. Petersburg on Tuesday night.
It's not the only mysterious death of a wealthy businessman this year.
St. Petersburg - Russian oligarch Yuri Voronov was found dead in the pool of his villa in an affluent St. Petersburg suburb on Monday night.
This was reported by the Russian newspaper
The Moscow Times
on Tuesday.
The 61-year-old apparently had a gunshot wound in the head, and several shell casings are said to have been found nearby.
The Russian investigative authorities classified the death as a "quarrel among business partners".
But it's not the first mysterious death of a Russian oligarch this year.
Russian oligarch with Gazprom connections is said to have made losses with his company
Yuri Voronov, 61, was the managing director of a logistics company that had contracts with the world's largest natural gas producer, Gazprom.
According to the company website, his transport company Astra Shipping was involved in projects with the Russian state-owned company Gazprom in the Arctic.
The deceased's wife reportedly told police that the businessman previously lost money due to conflicts with contractors and partners.
Astra-Shipping recorded a loss of 95 million rubles (1.5 million euros) in 2020, and in 2021 the loss was 65 million rubles (1 million euros), according to the Russian financial information agency SPARK-Interfax.
Gazprom oligarch found dead: It is not the first unexplained death of this kind
At least six oligarchs have died under mysterious circumstances this year,
The Moscow Times
reports.
Voronov is the fourth businessman with direct Gazprom connections and at least the sixth death with connections to the Russian gas industry.
In January, for example, the head of Gazprom Invest's transport service,
Leonid Shulman
, was found dead in his bathroom.
A message next to his body suggested suicide - Gazprom said it would investigate the case.
A month later, the deputy director of a Gazprom subsidiary,
Alexander Tyulakov, died.
According to an investigator involved in the case, Gazprom security guards took over during the forensic investigation and excluded the police.
Vasily Melnikov
, was found dead in March along with his wife and two sons.
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In April, former Gazprombank Vice President
Vladislav Avayev
and energy giant Novatek's former top executive
Sergei Protosenya
apparently committed suicide within 24 hours.
The two businessmen were far apart - in Moscow and in Spain - but were found dead within the same day along with several family members - the wives and daughters apparently murdered.
Other mysterious deaths of wealthy Russian businessmen, while not directly linked to Gazprom, are partly linked to the Russian gas industry.
For example, that of the Ukrainian-born Russian billionaire
Mikhail Watford
, or the death of the former Lukoil manager
Alexander Subbotin
, who died outside of Moscow at the beginning of May while being treated by a shaman.
Many of these deaths have never been fully explained.
Secrecy seems to be a specialty of former KGB agent Putin, as evidenced by his game of hide-and-seek about his real fortune.
Former richest man in Russia: "If Putin makes a decision, I will hardly survive"
Oligarchs in Russia became rich in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the privatization of state-owned companies - or later through their relationships with Vladimir Putin.
But this proximity to the Russian president could also be dangerous, critics believe.
One of the first deaths that also attracted attention in the West was the attack on the Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
He was poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium 210 and on his deathbed blamed Vladimir Putin: "You may succeed in silencing a man, but the cries of protest from around the world will last you, Mr. Putin, for the rest of your life ringing in the ears."
The Putin opponent Alexei Navalny barely survived a poison attack on him, the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky died in 2013. According to his own statements, he initially helped Putin into office, but fell out with him a little later.
Anyone who disagrees with Putin will be in the crosshairs, as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was once the richest man in Russia, also suggests.
The opposition member said in a recent interview with
Stern
that Putin could have him killed at any time.
"If Putin makes a decision, I will hardly survive," said the Russian oligarch.
But when the Stern journalists visited, there were neither bodyguards on site, nor were there metal detectors.
"I'm used to this situation," said the Kremlin critic fearlessly.
