Image of the interior of the Russian probe Luna25, which crashed into the moon on August 15 Roscosmos/Reuter
Vitaly Melnikov, a prominent Russian scientist who worked with the American space agency NASA, died on Wednesday (30) at the age of 77 after being hospitalized for a “severe form of poisoning,” according to Moskovsky Komsomolets.
Melnikov, who died on Wednesday (30), was admitted to a Moscow hospital on August 11. According to the Kremlincontrolled Komsomolets, “inedible mushrooms” were the cause of the poisoning. Details have not yet been released.
The scientist was a prominent figure in the space scene and headed the rockets and space systems department at RSC Energia, Moscow’s leading spacecraft manufacturer.
With a doctorate in technical sciences, Melnikov was also chief researcher at the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMash), part of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
In addition to the award for 291 scientific articles, the professor also cooperated with foreign colleagues, including experts from NASA.
After 50 years without missions to the moon, Russia suffered a significant setback. The Luna25 probe launched from Moscow crashed onto the lunar surface after losing control and spinning continuously. The incident represented an undesirable outcome for a project aimed at continuing the country’s space achievements on Earth’s natural satellite.
Melnikov’s case is another in a series of suspicious deaths that have occurred in Russia in recent years. In December, Vladimir Nesterov, the engineer responsible for Russia’s Angara rocket, died at the age of 74. Around the same time, General Alexei Maslov and Alexander Buzakov, general director of the Admiralty Shipyards, also died under sudden circumstances.
Recently, General Gennady Lopyrev, who sources say had secrets about the construction of Putin’s Black Sea palace, fell ill during his 10year prison sentence imposed in 2017.
Before his death in August, he was diagnosed with a previously unknown form of leukemia. Suspicions of poisoning arose after it emerged that Lopyrev, who was once close to Putin, was eligible for parole.
In addition to Yevgeny Prigozhin, check out other Putin enemies who died suspiciously
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died on Wednesday (23) after a plane crashed on the outskirts of Moscow, confirmed the Russian Civil Aviation Authority, a body equivalent to Anac in Brazil. Russian President Vladimir Putin is suspected to be behind the incident. On June 23, Prigozhin, then Putin’s righthand man, organized an uprising against the president’s government and then withdrew. At the time, Putin called the mutiny attempt a “treason” and promised to punish those responsible. Below are other people Putin is suspected of killing:
On December 25, 2022, Russian tycoon Pavel Antov died after falling from a hotel window in Rayganda, India, a few days after his 65th birthday. The millionaire MP criticized Putin’s war against Ukraine on WhatsApp over a rocket attack in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, but quickly deleted the message, claiming someone else had written it in September 2022 to Ravil Maganov, president of Lukoil, a gas and oil company , died under similar circumstances falling from a hospital window in Moscow. He was also openly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for “a quicker end to the armed conflict,” according to a report. A nowdeleted statement from Lukoil said the 67yearold died as a result of a “serious illness”. In August 2022, the body of businessman Dan Rapoport was found outside a building in the country’s capital, Washington DC. He has also been openly critical of Putin’s war and supported Ukraine on social media. According to police, he was carrying US$2,500 (R12,370), a Florida driver’s license, orange flipflops and a black hat when he was found dead in November 2015. Russia’s then press minister Mikhail Lesin was found dead with head injuries, also in Washington DC, in a hotel room. He was at the center of Russian political life for years and had extensive knowledge of how the group of the rich and powerful operated. Before he died, he considered making a deal with the FBI to protect himself from corruption charges. In February 2015, politician Boris Nemtsov, who was Russia’s deputy prime minister in the late 1990s, was shot four times in the back a few meters from the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian government, as he returned home after leaving a restaurant. He was a harsh critic of Putin and accused the president of being paid by oligarchs. In March 2013, Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found dead in his home in Berkshire, a county in England. He reportedly fled to the United Kingdom after a disagreement with Putin and, during his exile, threatened to overthrow the Russian president by force. Berezovksy was found in the bathroom of his home with a cable tie around his neck. Although the inquest ruled a death by suicide, the coroner was unable to explain how he died. In July 2009, journalist Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped outside her home and later found dead in a forest with gunshot wounds to the head. She specializes in exposing Russia’s human rights violations in Chechnya. In January 2009, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov was shot dead by a masked gunman near the Kremlin. The journalist Anastasia Baburova, who accompanied him, was also shot and died. Markelov represented journalists critical of Putin, including Anna Politkosvkaya. She wrote the book Putin’s Russia, in which she accuses the Russian president of turning the country into a police state. In November 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, the Russian secret service, died three weeks after drinking a cup of tea. that was laced with poison. A British investigation found that he was poisoned by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun. The officials were acting on orders “probably” approved by Putin and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. In October 2006, journalist Anna Politkosvkaya was killed by hired killers who shot her at close range in the elevator outside her apartment. Five men were convicted of the crime, but the judge concluded it was a contract killing. Anna wrote the book Putin’s Russia, in which she accuses the Russian president of turning the country into a police state. In July 2004, journalist Paul Klebnikov, then editorinchief of the Russian edition of Forbes, was killed in circumstances similar to those of Anna Politkosvkaya in a shooting in an apparent contract killing. He wrote about corruption cases in Russia and examined the lives of wealthy Russians. In April 2003, Russian politician Sergei Yushenkov was killed with a single shot in the chest, just hours after his political organization, Liberal Russia, was recognized as a party by the Justice Ministry. He tried to prove that the Russian state was behind the bombing of a building