Vladimir Nekrasov, president of Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil company, died unexpectedly at the age of 66 from “acute heart failure,” according to the company itself. A statement from Lukoil said Nekrasov worked in the oil and gas sector for almost 50 years and was first vice president of Lukoil and adviser to the company’s president: “It is with deep regret that we announce the sudden death of the company’s chairman and CEO of Lukoil, Vladimir Ivanovich Nekrasov – we read in the message from the Russian agency Tass – “According to the preliminary conclusion of the doctors, death occurred due to acute heart failure.”
Lukoil is one of the few Russian companies that has openly criticized the war in Ukraine: when contacted by the British financial agency Portal, the company declined an invitation to make further comments on Nekrasov’s death.
The previous one a year ago: The then president fell out of the window
However, the Lukoil manager’s heart attack is likely to open a new chapter in the already extensive list of “suspicious” deaths in Russia. If only that, he becomes the third senior Lukoil executive to end his days prematurely in the last year and a half. A unique fact in itself.
Lukoil’s previous CEO, Ravil Maganov, 67, died in September 2022, exactly 13 months ago, after falling from the window of a hospital in Moscow.
A few months earlier, 43-year-old Russian billionaire Alexander Subbotin, who was also connected to the Russian oil giant Lukoil, of which he was a top manager, was found dead. He had suffered a heart attack, which, according to persistent rumors, was due to poisoning.
Two more than suspicious deaths that had raised a number of questions and doubts about the fate of the “enemies” (real or perceived) of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The third “clue,” namely Nekrasov’s death, can only make the story more disarming.
Several Russian businessmen, most of whom were linked to the energy sector, died suddenly and under unclear circumstances in the months following the start of what Moscow called a “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022 (click here to read more ).
Lukoil’s statement against the war in Ukraine
What was unusual for Russian companies was that Lukoil had publicly criticized Moscow’s military operations in Ukraine. In a statement dated March 3, 2022, the board of the oil company – which until last year controlled the mega-refinery Priolo between Catania and Syracuse in Italy – expressed concern about the “tragic events” in Ukraine and asked “as soon as possible.” “possible an end to the armed conflict” and the start of peace negotiations. The press release is still visible on the company’s website (here).
– The Priolo Refinery The Priolo Refinery and the controversial handover of Lukoil to the Cypriots of Goi
For 12 years, Russia’s Lukoil remained the legal owner of the Priolo refinery, overlooking the sea just a few kilometers from Syracuse and just 30 kilometers from the American base at Sigonella, crucial to NATO’s interests and in the center of the Mediterranean. In the months after hostilities began in Ukraine, the Russians took steps to sell the assets to a Cypriot company, Goi Energy, but the media (led by the Wall Street Journal, whose publisher is Rupert Mordoch’s News Corp) and Many other US government officials have made it clear that they consider the Cypriot company to be “too close” to Russian interests. In other words, selling the refinery to the Cypriot company would be a way to circumvent American sanctions weighing on Russian oil. Refining plants are also fundamental for Italy, since Priolo alone provides 22% of the refined hydrocarbons required for the Italian market (diesel, gasoline, naphtha).