2022: The Year of the Russian Oligarch

High-profile Russian businessmen have been making a lot of headlines in 2022. With Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, many oligarchs were hit by Western sanctions, and some lost their superyachts, jets, and football teams. Other oligarchs, though, were a lot less fortunate.

As of this writing, at least 26 Russian businessmen have died under suspicious circumstances since the end of January. There is no proof that these deaths are in any way connected or are part of an ongoing conspiracy (especially since the timings mostly coincide with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). It really is just a very curious set of 26 coincidences.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long been suspected of silencing his critics. In 2017, USA TODAY and British journalist Sarah Hurst compiled a list of high-profile Russians who had died under suspicious circumstances or were victims of unsolved murders since the beginning of 2014 and they were able to put together 38 names.

The list included “10 high-profile critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, seven diplomats, six associates of Kremlin power brokers who had a falling out,” as well as “13 military or political leaders involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.”

“Twelve were shot, stabbed or beaten to death. Six were blown up. Ten died allegedly of natural causes. One died of mysterious head injuries, one reportedly slipped and hit his head in a public bath, one was hanged in his jail cell, and one died after drinking coffee. The cause of six deaths was reported as unknown.”

The 2022 list shows an accelerated number of sudden deaths, with fewer shootings and more strange accidents.

Eight of the deaths were caused by some sort of fall — from a building, off a cliff, a flight of stairs, and from a moving luxury yacht. Two were “murder-suicides” that occurred within a 48-hour window. Four were from a stroke or a heart attack, including one that was allegedly induced by a shamanic hangover cure. And there were also three with no official cause of death identified.

There are quite a few notable overlapping patterns. 

• Many of the businessmen in the list are connected to Russia’s oil and energy industry — e.g. holding key positions past or present in state-owned energy giant Gazprom, or the country’s second-largest private oil company, Lukoil, as well as the country’s largest independent gas company Novatek. 
• At least two (three, if you count Sungorkin) are connected to the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV). This is Putin’s Vladivostok-based project that aims to develop the country’s rich energy and mining resources in the Arctic region. The project has become an important focus for Putin since the limitations of the Western sanctions hit the country.
• There were only a couple of incidents over the summer, but as Ukraine’s counteroffensive recaptured territory in Eastern Ukraine in September, oligarchs started dying again.
• Three crypto billionaires (Mushegian, Kullander, and Taran) died within weeks of each other shortly after the collapse of FTX.
• Two of the most recent incidents involve military-adjacent businessmen. Buzakov is the Director General of the company that is currently building Kilo-class diesel-powered submarines that can be used to launch Kalibr cruise missiles. Maslov, who was formerly the commander in chief of Russia’s ground forces, was working for the world’s biggest tank manufacturer – and was to meet Putin the day before he died, before Putin cancelled the meeting at the last minute.
• Many on the list, including Antov, are known to have at some point criticized Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Earlier in the year, the Polish think tank the Warsaw Institute speculated that the Gazprom-related deaths could be the result of senior Kremlin-linked individuals “covering up traces of fraud in state-run companies.”

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, offers a more updated conjecture: these are “Russians who knew too much about Kremlin’s finances and military secrets and from Putin’s circle.”

Russians who knew too much about Kremlin's finances and military secrets and from Putin's circle are dying en masse in Russia.

Pavel Antonov, richest deputy of 🇷🇺 Duma, died in India on 26th December. He fell out of a hotel's window where he celebrated his birthday.

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) December 27, 2022

Here’s a breakdown of the 2022 list so far.

#	NAME	AGE	DESIGNATION	DATE OF DEATH	REPORTED CAUSE OF DEATH	REMARKS
1	Leonid Shulman	60	Director of Transport at Gazprom	30 Jan	Suicide; found with deep cuts on his wrists	A suicide note was found next to his body
2	Igor Nosov	44	CEO of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV) and former Deputy Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast	8 Feb	Suffered a stroke	Boss of Igor Pechorin
3	Alexander Tyulakov	61	Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center at Gazprom	25 Feb	Found hanging in a garage near St. Petersburg	A suicide note was found on his body
4	Mikhail Watford	66	Businessman (made his fortune in oil and gas, later ran ultra-prime property development company High Life)	28 Feb	“Unexplained circumstances”; some reports say he was found hanging in his garage	British authorities say that there was no evidence of a crime
5	Vasily Melnikov	43	CEO and owner of MedStorm	23 Mar	Stabbed to death in his home	His wife and two sons were also found dead beside him
6	Vladislav Avayev	51	Former Vice President of Gazprombank	18 Apr	Murder-suicide; gunshot	His wife and 13-year-old daughter were found dead beside him
7	Sergey Protosenya	55	Former Deputy Chairman of Novatek	19 Apr	Murder-suicide; found hanging in an apartment in Lloret de Mar, Spain	His wife and daughter were found dead in their beds with blunt axe wounds and stab wounds
8	Andrei Krukovsky	37	General Director of the Estosadok Krasnaya Polyana, a ski resort owned by Gazprom	1 May	Fell off a cliff while hiking to Achipse Fortress	Reportedly had extensive mountaineering experience
9	Alexander Subbotin	43	Board member of Lukoil	8 May	A drug-induced heart attack during a shamanic ritual	His death comes just months after Lukoil called for a quick end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
10	Yuri Voronov	61	CEO of Astra Shipping, a subcontractor of Gazprom	4 Jul	Gunshot wounds to the head	His wife has reportedly told investigators that he believed he was being swindled out of “a lot of money” by “dishonorable” contractors and partners.
11	Dan Rapoport	52	Businessman	14 Aug	Fell from his apartment building in Washington DC	It was reported that he left Russia in large part due to his support for Russia’s democratic opposition, particularly his support for Alexei Navalny.
12	Ravil Maganov	67	Chairman of Lukoil	1 Sep	Fell out of a window in the hospital where he was being treated for heart problems and depression	Tass news agency quoted sources saying he had fallen out of a sixth-floor window early on Thursday morning, adding later that he had taken his own life.
13	Ivan Pechorin	39	Director of Aviation of the Russian Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV)	10 Sep	Drowned at Cape Ignatyev, Vladivostok after falling from his boat	KRDV is President Vladimir Putin’s project for developing the country’s Arctic region’s rich energy and mining resources.
14	Vladimir Sungorkin	68	Editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda	14 Sep	Suffered a stroke	Sungorkin was on a trip to “collect material for a book about the great pioneer of the Far East, Vladimir Arseniev” when he died
15	Anatoly Gerashchenko	73	Former Head of Moscow Aviation Institute	21 Sep	Fell down the stairs at MAI	MAI has close connections with the Russian defense ministry, conducting aerospace research and developing technology like drones.
16	Pavel Pchelnikov	52	Director of Digital Logistics, a Russian Railways subsidiary	28 Sep	Suicide; gunshot wound	Called himself “the most experienced PR manager in Russian Railways company”
17	Nikolai Mushegian	29	Co-founder of the crypto lending platform MakerDAO	29 Oct	Drowned in Condado Beach, San Jan, Puerto Rico	Had mental problems; was tweeting frantically about the CIA and Mossad shortly before his death
18	Viktor Cherkesov	72	Former chief of the now-defunct State Drug Control Service (FKSN) and presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District	8 Nov	No cause of death was provided, other than it followed a “serious illness”	He was Putin’s former KGB mentor and longtime ally but later became an outspoken critic.
19	Tiantian Kullander	30	Co-founder of Hong Kong-based Amber Group, a crypto trading platform	23 Nov	Died in his sleep; no other details have been provided	At the time of his death, Amber Group was about to land a significant investment and was reportedly in the process of raising around US$100 million.
20	Vyacheslav Taran	53	Co-founder of Libertex, a foreign exchange market	29 Nov	Helicopter crash	The only other passenger of the chopper canceled at the last minute; Life.ru, a pro-Kremlin news outlet, reported that Taran had “enemies in Russia.”
21	Grigory Kochenov	41	Creative director of Agima, an IT company	7 Dec	Fell from the balcony of his apartment during a police search	Often spoke out against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
22	Dmitry Zelenov	50	Co-founder of Don-Stroy, a construction company	9 Dec	Fell ill then fell down the stairs, died in the emergency room without regaining consciousness	Before his company fell under the control of Russia’s state-owned bank VTB during the 2008 financial crisis, his net worth was estimated at $1.4 billion, which put him on the Forbes list of Russian billionaires.
23	Vladimir Bidenov	61	Business associate and travel companion of Pavel Antov	22 Dec	Heart attack	Has never had any heart problems prior to his death
24	Pavel Antov	65	Founder of Vladimir Standard, a meat processing company, and deputy (member) of the Legislative Assembly of Vladimir Oblast	24 Dec	Fell from his hotel room window	Richest MP in the Duma; recently criticized Putin’s war in Ukraine
25	Alexander Buzakov	67	Director General of the Admiralty Shipyards, which specializes in building non-nuclear submarines	24 Dec	No cause of death was provided	Tass news agency said the shipyard is building improved Kilo-class diesel-powered submarines capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles.
26	Aleksey Maslov	69	Former commander in chief of Russia’s ground forces; special representative for the military corporation Uralvagonzavod, the world’s biggest tank manufacturer	25 Dec	No cause of death was provided; died in N.N. Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital	His death comes a day after President Vladimir Putin abruptly canceled a visit to the company where he worked

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