Have you been keeping up with the Russian oligarchs lately? No, not the ones who have been making headlines for their political manoeuvring – I’m talking about the ones who have been dying in suspicious and often downright horrible suspicious circumstances.
Documented cases: Russian business figures who died since 2022
The list below covers people from Russian business and industry who died in unusual or disputed circumstances from January 2022 onwards. It gives the date, the person’s role, the place and the circumstance as reported. Where investigators reached a formal finding, that finding is named.
What this list does not do: it draws no conclusion about a common cause, and it does not allege that any of these deaths was arranged. Several were ruled suicides or accidents by the authorities; relatives have publicly disputed some of those rulings. Both facts are recorded where they apply. The list is limited to business figures and is not exhaustive — politicians, officials, journalists and military figures are outside its scope.
| Date | Name | Role | Place | Reported circumstance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jan 2022 | Leonid Shulman | Head of transport, Gazprom Invest | Leningrad region | Found dead at his country house; a note was reported at the scene |
| 25 Feb 2022 | Alexander Tyulyakov | Senior executive, Gazprom corporate security | Leningrad region | Found hanged in a garage, the day after the invasion of Ukraine began |
| 28 Feb 2022 | Mikhail Watford | Ukrainian-born businessman | Surrey, England | Found dead at his home; police reported no suspicious circumstances |
| 23 Mar 2022 | Vasily Melnikov | Chief executive, Medstom | Nizhny Novgorod | Found dead with his wife and two sons |
| 18 Apr 2022 | Vladislav Avayev | Former vice-president, Gazprombank | Moscow | Found dead with his wife and daughter; investigated as a murder-suicide |
| 19 Apr 2022 | Sergey Protosenya | Former deputy chairman, Novatek | Lloret de Mar, Spain | Found hanged; his wife and daughter were found with injuries. Catalan police treated it as a domestic case; his son publicly rejected that account |
| 1 May 2022 | Andrei Krukovsky | Director, Krasnaya Polyana resort | Sochi | Fall from a cliff |
| 8 May 2022 | Alexander Subbotin | Former board member, Lukoil | Moscow region | Found dead in a basement; heart failure reported |
| 4 Jul 2022 | Yuri Voronov | Chief executive, Gazprom contractor Astra Shipping | Leningrad region | Found dead with a gunshot wound |
| 1 Sep 2022 | Ravil Maganov | Chairman of the board, Lukoil | Moscow | Fall from a hospital window |
| 10 Sep 2022 | Ivan Pechorin | Aviation director, Far East development corporation | Amur region | Drowned |
| 25 Nov 2022 | Vyacheslav Taran | Co-founder, Libertex | Villefranche-sur-Mer, France | Helicopter crash |
| 9 Dec 2022 | Dmitriy Zelenov | Co-founder of a construction group | Antibes, France | Fall over a railing |
| 24 Dec 2022 | Pavel Antov | Food-processing entrepreneur and regional deputy | Rayagada, India | Fall from a hotel window, two days after a travelling companion died at the same hotel |
| Oct 2023 | Vladimir Nekrasov | Chairman of the board, Lukoil | — | Acute heart failure |
| 13 Mar 2024 | Vitaly Robertus | Vice-president, Lukoil | Moscow | Found hanged in his office |
| 20 Oct 2024 | Mikhail Rogachev | Former vice-president of an oil company | Moscow | Fall from a window |
One pattern is a matter of record: Lukoil lost three senior figures in three years — board chairman Ravil Maganov in 2022, his successor Vladimir Nekrasov in 2023, and vice-president Vitaly Robertus in 2024. Falls from windows recur often enough across the wider list that the phrase has entered common usage in reporting on Russia.
Sources: contemporaneous reporting by Reuters, CNN, CNBC and NBC News on the individual cases, and the consolidated overview Suspicious deaths of Russian businesspeople. Checked 8 August 2026. Dates and circumstances follow the reporting available at that time; several cases remain formally unresolved.
In just the past few months, several high-profile Russian billionaires have lost their lives, and many observers can’t help but wonder if there is a connection. So what’s going on? Is Putin cleaning the house? Or is something more sinister afoot?
I know, I know – it’s hard to get too worked up about the death of a billionaire. But it seems like they’re being knocked off one after another, making you wonder what’s happening behind closed doors in Moscow apartment. Stay tuned – I plan to keep tracking this story and report any new developments. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Also read: Anatoly Sedykh: The Great Russian Oligarch
Image credit:pixabay.com
Boris Berezovsky
Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found dead at his home in the U.K. on Saturday, March 23rd. The 67-year-old had been living in exile since 2001, when he fell out with Russian President Vladimir Putin and fled the country. Berezovsky was a controversial figure known for his immense wealth and close relationship with Kremlin insiders during the Yeltsin era.
In recent years, he had become increasingly critical of Putin, publicly calling for his overthrow. His death is being treated as a suicide note, though some have suggested that he may have been murdered.
Berezovsky’s death is the latest in a string of mysterious deaths of Russian oligarchs who have crossed Putin. In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer living in exile, was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London. In 2015, the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in Moscow. Neither man was an oligarch. As tensions between Russia and the West continue to escalate, it seems likely that we will see more such cases in the future.
Also read: Alexander Abramov Oligarch
Alexander Perepilichnyy
One of the most high-profile cases is Alexander Perepilichnyy, a businessman who helped expose Russian corruption. In November 2012, Perepilichnyy was found dead in his home in Surrey, England.
Initially, some believed that he died of natural causes, but more investigation later reported in the Russian newspaper Gazeta shows that he had been poisoned. The circumstances surrounding Perepilichnyy’s death are still unclear, but his case highlights the dangers faced by those who cross the Russian government.
Image credit:pixabay.com
Sergei Magnitsky
One such death was that of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer specializing in uncovering government fraud. In 2009, he uncovered a large-scale tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials. For his efforts, he was arrested and imprisoned.
While in prison, he was tortured and killed. His death sparked international outrage and led to the passage of the Magnitsky Act, which sanctioned those responsible for his death. Another oligarch who died recently was Boris Berezovsky, a former billionaire who fell out of favour with Vladimir Putin.
He was found dead in his London home. While the official cause of death was ruled an apparent suicide or committing suicide, many believe that the Russian government assassinated him through outspoken Putin critic. These deaths remind oligarchs of the danger they face when they cross the Kremlin.
Also read: Russian Oligarchs In California
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov, a leading Russian opposition figure, was shot dead near the Kremlin in February 2015. Nemtsov was a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, and his death sparked international condemnation.
In the months before his murder, Nemtsov had been working on a report documenting Russian military involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. His death is widely seen as an attempt to silence dissent and intimidate government opponents.
Nemtsov’s murder-suicide is just one of several recent high-profile deaths of Russian oligarchs. Mikhail Lesin, a close ally of Putin, was found dead in a Washington hotel room in 2015. Lesin was reportedly planning to cooperate with U.S. authorities investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
And last year, Nikolai Glushkov, a close associate of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, was found strangled to death in his London home.
These deaths have all raised suspicion among opposition figures and Western observers. Many believe that the Russian government is behind these murders and that they are part of a broader campaign to silence dissent and consolidate power.
Conclusion
In sum, it would appear that there has been a pattern of suspicious deaths among all the Russian oligarchs in recent years. While some have died of natural causes, others have met their ends under more questionable circumstances. While it’s impossible to say whether these deaths are linked, their sheer number and similarity are undoubtedly causing concern.
It will be interesting to see how this story develops in the coming months and years – will we learn more about what’s going on behind the scenes in Russia, or will this fade into obscurity? Only time will tell.
What a whistleblower said about the deaths
German Gorbuntsov, a Russian financier, claims that a succession of inexplicable deaths of Russian oligarchs in recent months is “not a coincidence.”
In a recent documentary called Secrets of the Oligarch Wives, which features the female partners of Russian billionaires and gives them the chance to discuss what they have seen while living close to President Vladimir Putin’s administration, Gorbuntsov made an appearance.
About the oligarch murders, Gorbuntsov reportedly added, “A killer comes up with his approach when he’s told to take out a family.” They were all killed using similar but somewhat varied methods a rifle there, an axe here but they weren’t all suicides. This wasn’t a coincidence.
Before talking about the deaths of the Russian oligarchs, Gorbuntsov and the narrator of the video described a claimed attempt on his life that happened after he left Russia.
Gorbuntsov had no explanation for how the oligarchs would have perished if not by suicide. The documentary’s co-star and financier Bill Browder suggested that Western sanctions against Russia might have had an impact.