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Lukoil boss Rawil Maganov (2015)
Photo: Sergei Fadeichev / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
Ravil Maganov, CEO of Russian oil company Lukoil, died on Thursday.
His death is the latest in a series of mysterious deaths of Russian businessmen since the start of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the year, this has included several managers from Russian energy companies.
An overview.
Rawil Maganov, Lukoil
The case:
Maganow, born in 1954, died in Moscow on Thursday.
The attempted explanation:
Maganow had succumbed to the consequences of a "serious illness," said Lukoil, without giving any further details on the cause of death.
Russian media had previously reported that Maganov fell from a window at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
In addition to heart problems, Maganow was diagnosed with depression, it said.
In March, Russian oil giant Lukoil became the first major Russian company to publicly advocate an end to the war in Ukraine.
Yuri Voronov, Astra-Shipping
The case:
The 61-year-old Voronov was found in early July with a gunshot wound to the head in the swimming pool of a holiday home complex in a suburb of Saint Petersburg.
Voronov was the founder and head of the logistics company Astra-Shipping, which carried out orders in the Arctic for Gazprom.
The attempted explanation:
According to media reports, a pistol and empty cartridge cases were lying on the edge of the pool.
Russian investigators assumed that the oligarch died in a dispute with business partners.
His wife said Voronov believed he had been cheated out of a lot of money by "dishonest" contractors.
Vladimir Lyakishev, Brothers Karavayev
The case:
45-year-old Lyakishev, co-owner of the Russian coffee shop chain Brothers Karavayev, was found dead on May 4 on the balcony of his apartment on the 16th floor of a Moscow skyscraper.
The attempted explanation:
the police said at the time that Lyakishev had shot himself.
Alexander Subbotin, Lukoil
The case:
Subbotin also died in May.
He was a senior executive at Lukoil, the gas company whose CEO died on Thursday.
The attempted explanation:
Subbotin's case was discussed in detail in the Russian media.
Accordingly, he died during an occult treatment for alcohol addiction.
A shaman would have received him in his apartment in Mytishchi, north-east of Moscow.
There they first administered toad poison through a cut in the skin, later he bathed in rooster blood, among other things, before Subbotin suddenly felt unwell and vomited.
The shaman and his wife put the billionaire to rest on a couch in the basement, but then he didn't get up.
As the independent "Moscow Times" reported, the manager is said to have regularly contacted the healer.
Vladislav Avayev, Gazprombank, and Sergey Protosenya, Novatek
The cases:
In April, two top managers from the Russian gas industry died within 48 hours.
Avayev, a 51-year-old former vice president of Gazprombank, was found dead in a Moscow apartment along with the bodies of his wife and 13-year-old daughter.
The next day Protosenya, former top manager of the gas company Novatek, was discovered in his villa in the Spanish coastal town of Lloret de Mar.
Dead, along with his wife and 18-year-old daughter.
Novatek is Russia's top LNG exporter;
Payments for Russian gas from the pipeline monopoly Gazprom are made through Gazprombank.
The attempted explanation:
The Russian daily newspaper Kommersant quoted the investigators as saying that they believed that Awayev had shot his wife and daughter before he committed suicide.
In the case of the Protosenya family, the Catalan police initially assumed it was an extended suicide.
However, there is increasing doubt as to what happened, as Protosenya's wife and daughter died of cuts and stab wounds from an ax and a knife, according to British and Spanish reports.
The businessman himself was found hanged in front of the villa.
In addition, no suicide note was found and no blood was found on Protosenya's clothes.
It is unclear whether the two crimes are related.
Alexander Tyulakov, Gazprom
The Case:
Tyulakov was found dead in the garage of his St. Petersburg home on February 25, the morning after Russia invaded Ukraine.
He was a senior executive at Gazprom.
The attempted explanation:
Neither Gazprom nor the region's investigative commission made any public statements about the death of the 61-year-old, which the newspaper Novaya Gazeta described as a suicide.
Mikhail Watford
The case:
Watford, a 66-year-old businessman of Ukrainian descent, was found dead in a home in south-east England on February 28.
The attempted explanation:
The Surrey police said at the time that the death was not classified as suspicious.
Leonid Shulman, Gazprom Invest
The case:
Shulman's body was found on January 30 in the bathroom of a house in Vyborgsky district north of Saint Petersburg.
The 60-year-old was the head of transport services at Gazprom Invest, a company that handles investment projects for gas giant Gazprom.
The attempted explanation:
According to the Russian news agency RIA, this death was probably a suicide.
A local news portal reported that Shulman was on sick leave with a leg injury.
sak/Reuters