Irish Examiner view: More dagger than cloak

Mystery surrounds the continuing spate of sudden fatalities of prominent figures in Russia

Russian president Vladimir Putin taking part in a video conference meeting at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow on Monday. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AP

Mysterious Russian deaths

There have been a number of mysterious deaths in Russia recently. Not that that is particularly strange in a country where opposition to the regime can result in all sorts of unpleasant outcomes. 

However, the recent spate of fatalities among a group that could be loosely called ‘allies’ of president Vladimir Putin seems particularly strange.

Late last week, Russian media reported the death of Vladimir Sungorkin, the editor of Putin’s favourite tabloid newspaper,  Komsomolskaya Pravda, a pro-Kremlin outlet.

Sungorkin, according to several Russian newspapers, died “suddenly” after “suffocation” after a lunch stop while researching a book. 

Then there was the unexplained passing of Russia’s Far East and Arctic Development Corporation executive Ivan Pechorin, and the death in April of the former boss of gas giant Novatek, Sergey Protosenya. He was found dead, along with his wife and 18-year-old daughter in their Spanish villa in what appeared to be a case of murder/suicide. 

Novatek later issued a statement saying it was dubious about media speculation as they bore no “relation to reality”.

In April, the ex-president of Gazprombank, Vladislav Avayev, was found dead in his Moscow apartment with his wife and daughter. And, just over two weeks ago, Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russia’s largest oil company Lukoil, died after apparently falling from a hospital window. 

His was the sixth fatal incident involving executives of oil and gas companies whose lives ended in unexplained ways.

That Lukoil was the only big Russian oil company to disapprove of the war in Ukraine may or may not have had anything to do with Maganov’s death, but mystery still surrounds the untimely demise of all these people.