Edited by: Fern Sidman
One of Vladimir Putin’s top space engineers passed away unexpectedly at age 74, as was reported on Friday, making him the latest member of Russia’s scientific and military elite to die under suspicious circumstances this year.
Vladimir Nesterov was the man who created the Russian Angara rocket and was the former general director of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The Russian state news agency Tass reported Nesterov’s death Wednesday, citing information confirmed by the Khrunichev Center’s press service, according to a New York Post report. Nesterov’s cause and manner of death have not been disclosed.
The Post reported that Nesterov resigned as head of the rocket maker in August 2012 after two satellites exploded in a botched launch of Russia’s Proton-M rocket, but he continued working on the development of Angara in his capacity as chief engineer.
This year, suspicion hung over the man who built the “world’s best” rocket pads, making Putin’s aspirations of space travel a reality.
Using Nesterov’s plans as a foundation, Russia is currently developing its first manned lunar trip, according to a report in on the dailyntionpakistan.com web site.
Nesterov resigned as head of the rocket maker in August 2012 after two satellites exploded in a botched launch of Russia’s Proton-M rocket, but he continued working on the development of Angara in his capacity as chief engineer, the Post reported.
In 2014, after the Angara rocket’s successful launch, Nesterov left the agency, according to the Post report. Around the same time, he was accused of large-scale fraud and embezzlement.
In November 2020, Nesterov was criminally charged with misappropriating more than $72 million from the state, as was reported by the Post.
According to investigations, back in 2006, a year into his tenure as the head of the Khrunichev Center, Nesterov allowed an American firm called Space Transport Inc. to sell its shares in Russia, which his agency subsequently purchased at a higher price, the report added. The case was still winding its way through the courts at the time of Nesterov’s death.
Earlier this week, a Russian politician and sausage magnate who criticized Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine had been found dead following a mysterious fall from a third floor window at a hotel in Rayagada in Odisha in India on Saturday, as was reported by Yahoo News this past Tuesday.
Pavel Antov, who is the country’s highest-earning elected politician, had been vacationing in India ahead of his 66th birthday when his body was discovered, according to a Yahoo News report. He was rushed to a local hospital by his Indian guide but declared dead by a doctor.
His death comes just six months after he described Russia’s air strikes on Kyiv as “terror” while pointing to a latest attack, Yahoo News reported.
“A girl has been pulled out from under the rubble, the girl’s father appears to have died,” he said at the time. “The mother is trying to be pulled out with a crane. She is trapped under a slab. To tell the truth, it is extremely difficult to call this anything other than terror,” Antov added.
Yahoo News reported that soon after making these comments, Antov withdrew them and offered an apology. The report indicated that he said that there had been an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and that he had “always supported the President.”
The National Herald of India reported Tuesday that this marks the second death of Russian lawmakers within a week in the same Odisha hotel. Two days earlier, Antov’s party colleague, Vladimir Budanov, 61, a tourist, died in the hotel of a heart attack.
Yahoo News also reported that Indian police have said that they have not ruled out the possibility that Antov, who earned $205 million in 2019, “may have become depressed over his friend’s death and committed suicide”.
According to Russian News Agency, TASS, Vyacheslav Kartukhin, Vice Speaker of the Regional Parliament said on the Telegram channel, “Our colleague, a successful entrepreneur, and philanthropist Pavel Antov passed away. On behalf of the deputies of the United Russia faction, I express my deep condolences to relatives and friends, “ as was reported by the National Herald of India.
His death came just weeks after Ravi Maganov, the chairman of the board of Russia’s largest private oil company, reportedly fell from a sixth story hospital window, Yahoo News reported. The company had previously called for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The National Herald of India reported that Ivan Pechorin drowned on September 10th near Cape Ignatyev in Vladivostok and his body was found near the village of Beregovoe. In December 2021, Yegor Prosvirnin—the founder of the nationalist website Sputnik and Pogrom—died after falling out of a window of a residential building in the center of Moscow, the National Herald report added.
Pavel Antov’s death is among a series of other deaths of Russian oligarchs who have criticized the Vladimir Putin-led administration’s war with Ukraine, the National Herald of India reported. These individuals too have met similar mysterious ends, where they were found to have fallen out of windows.
The Dutch NOS news network described the phenomenon as “a grim series of Russian billionaires”, who have been found dead under unusual circumstances since early this year, according to the National Herald of India. Many of these oligarchs are from the oil and gas industries. In several of these instances, bodies of their families have also been discovered with stab wounds and knife marks, the report added.
Meanwhile, Odisha police have initiated a high-level investigation into Pavel Antov’s death. Odisha DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal has ordered the CID-Crime Branch to take over the inquiry into the cases related to unnatural deaths of two Russian nationals in the Rayagada ditrict, as was reported by the National Herald.
The police are yet to ascertain whether Antov accidentally fell off the terrace of the hotel, or committed suicide. The cops are also looking into other angles of the two cases.
“We have registered an unnatural death case and are conducting an investigation. The post-mortem has been done. The Russian authority in Kolkata is in touch with us. We are extending all support they want in this case,” the DGP said, according to the National Herald report.
Meanwhile, Pandit Rajesh Uttamrao, DIG, Koraput, along with Rayagada SP Vivekanand Sharma visited the hotel as part of the probe, the National Herald reported. “Our scientific investigation is going on. We are waiting for the post-mortem reports. As per doctors’ opinion in the report, we will conduct further investigation,” said Pandit.
In terms of getting to the bottom of the mysterious deaths of Russian officials and oligarchs since the outbreak of the war against Ukraine that was launched by Russia, Newsweek has compiled a list of those who died under highly suspicious circumstances.
The death of Anatoly Gerashchenko, a 72-year-old scientist, who had been the rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute from 2007 to 2015, was reported by the institute on September 21, though no details on the incident were provided, according to the Newsweek report.
According to the Moscow Aviation Institute, the scientist “fell from a great height” and was declared dead by paramedics who arrived on the scene (though the exact location of the incident has not been described). Newsweek also reported that the university told Russian state media agency TASS that they had opened an investigation into Gerashchenko’s death.
Newsweek also indicated that the death of Russian businessman Ivan Pechorin, the 39-year-old top manager for the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, was reported by his company on September 12.
According to regional reports, Pechorin drowned on September 10 near Cape Ignatyev in Vladivostok and his body was found near the village of Beregovoe, Newsweek reported. The top official was in charge of developing and commercially exploiting Russia’s natural resources in its Arctic territories and was said to be close to Putin.
Some reports said that he was sailing his yacht off Russia’s Pacific coast near Russky Island, near Cape Ignatiev, in the Sea of Japan when he slipped off board after allegedly drinking too much, the Newsweek report said.
Ravil Maganov, chairman of Russia’s second-largest oil producer and biggest private oil company Lukoil, was found dead on September 1 after falling from the window of a hospital in Moscow, according to reports. Several Russian media outlets reported the death of the 67-year-old oil executive confirming that Maganov fell to his death, though the circumstances surrounding his fall remain unexplained, as was reported by Newsweek.
According to the Interfax news agency, Maganov —who had worked at Lukoil since 1993— “fell from a window at Central Clinical Hospital” —the same hospital where former Soviet Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev died. Newsweek reported that Maganov “died from injuries sustained in the fall,” though it’s not clear why Maganov was in the hospital in the first place.
Newsweek reported that two sources close to Maganov told Reuters that they believed it was highly unlikely he had died by suicide, while another source told the news agency that Lukoil’s management, on the other hand, was convinced he had killed himself, though there was no documentation supporting this belief.
In a statement following Maganov’s death, the company said that the top executive had “passed away following a serious illness,” but the illness wasn’t specified, as was reported by Newsweek.
Newsweek has reached out to Russia’s Investigative Committee for comment.
Maganov is the second Lukoil employee to die under mysterious circumstances, Newsweek reported . In May, Russian media reported that former Lukoil manager Alexander Subbotin had been found dead in the basement of a house outside Moscow.
The company’s board of directors —including its chair Maganov— had taken a rare stance against the war in Ukraine since early March, as was reported by Newsweek. It released a statement calling for the “soonest possible end to armed conflict” via negotiations.
“Calling for the soonest termination of the armed conflict, we express our sincere empathy for all victims who are affected by this tragedy,” the board of directors of Lukoil said, Newsweek reported. “We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy.”
The body of Sergey Protosenya, former top manager of Russia’s energy giant Novatek, was found together with those of his wife and daughter on April 19th in a rented villa in Spain, where the family was reportedly on holiday for Easter, according to the information in the Newsweek report.
The 55-year-old millionaire was found hanged in the garden of the villa in Lloret de Mar by Catalonian police, Spanish media reported, while his wife and daughter were found in their beds with stab wounds on their bodies, Newsweek reported.
According to local media outlets Telecinco and El Punt Avui, an axe and a knife were found next to the body of Protosenya.
Newsweek reported that police are investigating two possible scenarios, according to Telecinco. Either the Russian oligarch killed his wife and daughter and then hanged himself, or the entire family was murdered and the crime scene was later staged to appear like a murder-suicide.
Protosenya’s death was confirmed by Russian state media TASS. Newsweek also reported that the Protosenya family mainly lived in France. Novatek is the second largest company in Russia involved in the production of natural gas.
Just a day before the body of Protosenya was found in Spain, on April 18, former vice-president of Gazprombank, Vladislav Avaev was found dead in his multi-million apartment on Universitetsky Prospekt in Moscow, together with his wife and daughter, as was reported by Newsweek.
The bodies were reportedly discovered by a relative of the Avaevs after being unable to get in contact with the family for several days. Newsweek reported that the apartment was locked from the inside and a pistol was found in Avaev’s hands, leading investigators to explore the theory that Avaev shot his wife and his 13-year-old daughter before killing himself. Privately-owned Gazprombank is the third-largest bank by assets in Russia.
On March 24, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported the death of billionaire Vasily Melnikov in his luxury apartment in Nizhny Novgorod, the sixth-largest city in the country, as was reported by Newsweek.
According to police investigations reported by Kommersant, Melnikov—who reportedly worked for the medical firm MedStom—was found dead in the apartment together with his wife Galina and two sons. Newsweek reported that they had all died from stab wounds and the knives used for the murders were found at the crime scene.
Kommersant reported that investigators concluded that Melnikov killed his 41-year-old wife and 10-year-old and 4-year-old children before killing himself, but neighbors and relatives struggle to believe this theory, as was reported by Newsweek. According to the Ukrainian media outlet Glavred, Melnikov’s company was suffering huge losses because of Western sanctions.
Another theory, says Glavred, is a possible confrontation with a former business partner. But according to sources cited by Kommersant, police found no traces of any external interference or struggle in the Melnikovs’ apartment, as was reported by Newsweek.
The children were found in the children’s room and Melnikov’s wife in the bedroom. Newsweek reported that Melnikov was found in the bathroom with a cut artery.
Ukrainian-born Russian tycoon Mikhail Watford was found dead in his home in Surrey in the U.K. on February 28th, according to the Newsweek report.
Watford—who had changed his name from the original Tolstosheya—was born in 1955 in then-Soviet Ukraine and had made a name for himself after becoming an oil and gas magnate.
Newsweek reported that Watford, 66, was found hanged in the garage of his home by a gardener, according to The Daily Mail. Surrey police said the circumstances around his death were not suspicious, as reported by the BBC. Watford lived in the house with his Estonian wife Jane and his three children.
On February 25th, Gazprom’s Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center (UCC) for Corporate Security, Alexander Tyulyakov, was found dead in a cottage near St. Petersburg, as reported by the Russian newspaper Gazeta, according to the Newsweek story.
Tyulyakov’s body was reportedly found hanged in the apartment’s garage. Newsweek also reported that police found a note next to his body that led investigators to believe the oligarch had died by suicide.
An employee of the Investigative Committee for the Leningrad region working on Tyulyakov’s death told independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that forensic specialists were already working at the scene of the apparent suicide when Gazprom’s security service staff arrived and cordoned off the crime scene, leaving police officers outside the house, as was reported by Newsweek.
Tyulyakov, 61, had worked for Gazprom for about 10 years, and had previously served as Deputy General Director for Corporate Security and Human Resources at the energy giant.
Newsweek reported that the first death linked to Russian energy giant Gazprom dates back to before the Russian invasion of Ukraine had even started, in January of 2022.
At that time, 60-year-old Gazprom’s top manager Leonid Shulman was found dead in the bathroom of a cottage in the Leningrad region, next to a note that led police to believe he died by suicide, according to Gazeta and Russian media group RBC, and was reported by Newsweek.
RBC reports that Gazprom Invest said it was investigating the death of Schulman.
“Our colleague, the head of the transport service, Leonid Aleksandrovich Shulman, has p
assed away. The circumstances are being investigated,” RBC quotes the company saying, according to the Newsweek report. According to RBC, Shulman was on sick leave when he died.
