A Russian executive has been found dead on the balcony of his Moscow home – just the latest in a string of “suicides” that seem suspicious.
Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a public relations manager for Russian Railways, was found dead early Wednesday at his home in the leafy Kolomenskaya Embankment.
He is at least the tenth prominent Russian to die under mysterious circumstances since Putin invaded Ukraine in February.
Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a railroad PR executive, was found dead in what is believed to be a “suicide” at his home in Moscow.
Pchelnikov was recently on holiday with his family (left) and his death has been branded suspicious, just the latest in a series of “suicides” among Russian executives that are raising questions
Pchelnikov had boasted that he was “the most experienced PR manager in the Russian Railways” and just a month ago went on vacation with his family.
He had uploaded smiling pictures of himself on vacation to social media in the weeks leading up to his death.
A preliminary investigation concluded that Pchelnikov had killed himself, but gave no details and did not explain his motive. A full investigation is underway.
On September 1, 67-year-old oil tycoon Ravil Maganov fell to his death from a sixth-floor window of a Moscow hospital.
A report says that the chairman of Lukoil – Russia’s second largest oil company – was “beaten” before being “thrown out the window”, but this is not officially confirmed.
His company had spoken out against the war in Ukraine.
Curiously, very soon after Maganov’s body was found, Putin arrived at the elite Central Clinical Hospital to pay his last respects to the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who had died in the hospital.
In July, Yuri Voronov, 61, head of a transport and logistics company for a Gazprom-affiliated company, was found dead in his swimming pool with a leading friend, a top criminologist who warned of unfair play.
Two more deaths of Gazprom-affiliated executives were reported in elite apartments near St. Petersburg, amid suspicions that apparent suicides may have been homicides.
Ivan Pechorin, 39, was executive director of Putin’s Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, responsible for developing Russia’s resources in the Arctic and the aviation industry in eastern Russia
Igor Nosov, CEO of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, also died earlier this year in his early 40s, reportedly of a “stroke”.
Ravil Maganov, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, died after falling out of a window at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital (pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2019).
Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior finance and security official at Gazprom at the level of Deputy Director General, was spotted by his lover the day after the war in Ukraine began in February.
His neck was in a noose at his £500,000 home.
However, he was reportedly severely beaten just before he “took his own life,” leading to speculation he was under intense pressure.
At the same elite Leninsky housing estate in the Leningrad region, three weeks earlier, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.
43-year-old billionaire Alexander Subbotin, also linked to pro-Kremlin energy giant Lukoil, where he was a top executive, was found dead in May after “taking the advice of shamans”.
One theory is that Subbotin – who also owned a shipping company – was poisoned by toad venom, triggering a heart attack.
In April, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have committed suicide after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13.
He had high-level ties to Russia’s leading financial institution, Gazprombank.
Friends have denied reports he was jealous after his wife admitted she was pregnant from her driver.
There are claims that he had access to the financial secrets of the Kremlin elite.
Yuri Voronov, 61, was found dead in August
Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite apartments near St. Petersburg, raising suspicions that the deaths could have been murders
Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, a former top executive at energy giant Lukoil, died in May
A few days later, multi-millionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain after apparently killing his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria with an axe.
He was a former vice chairman of Novatek, a company also closely associated with the Kremlin.
There were also questions about the death of Putin’s man in charge of developing Russia’s vast Arctic resources, who “fell overboard” to his death from a boat sailing off the country’s Pacific coast.
Ivan Pechorin, 39, recently attended a major conference hosted by Kremlin warmongers in Vladivostok.
The high-flyer was executive director of Putin’s Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.
And in another case, a mobile phone multi-millionaire and his wife were found stabbed to death, with the official version of events raising questions.
The naked Yevgeny Palant (47) and his wife Olga (50), both born in Ukraine, were found with multiple stab wounds by their daughter Polina (20).
Immediately briefing the media claimed the woman took her own life in a jealous rage after Palant said he was leaving her.
However, this has been fiercely denied by the couple’s best friend.
Former Kremlin official and Vice President of Gazprombank Vladislav Avayev, 51, apparently took his own life after killing his wife and one of his daughters in April
Russian gas magnate Sergey Protosenya (pictured), his wife Natalya, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria were found dead at their Spanish villa in Lloret de Mar on April 19
Ukrainian-born multi-millionaire Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga Palant, 50, were found stabbed to death at their family home in the Moscow region last week