Another multi-million Russian businessman found dead under mysterious circumstances. On Monday afternoon, 61-year-old Yuri Voronov was shot dead in his mansion in one of the most affluent suburbs of St. Petersburg. The Russian businessman had a gunshot wound to the head, a Grand Power semi-automatic weapon around him and several spent bullets at the bottom of the pool. He is the latest member of an elite linked to energy giant Gazprom. Yuri Voronov headed a logistics company that had contracts with Gazprom in the Arctic.
The deaths of former energy company employees are shrouded in mystery
Yuri Voronov is the sixth Russian businessman linked to Gazprom to die under mysterious circumstances since earlier this year, after two others died in the same suburb of St. Petersburg. But there is general biographical data: nine deaths with circumstances to be determined since early 2022 It also targeted oligarchs associated with Novatek and Lukoil. The exception to the rule was Vasily Melnikov, owner of medical equipment company MedStom, but his death received so much media attention that investigators pointed to the usual cause: self-inflicted death. Vasily Melnikov and his wife and their four- and ten-year-old children were found stabbed to death on March 23.
A Russian research team is investigating the circumstances of Voronov’s death, and has already made progress Journal “The Independent”For now, the reason for the killing is “dispute with business partners”.
Yuri Voronov’s wife told investigators that the businessman believed that contractors and shareholders were robbing “a lot of money.” However, several deaths in other mansions near St. Petersburg have sparked rumors that the murders looked like suicides.
Alexander Dyulakov, 61, a senior finance and security official at Gazprom, was hanged in February by an accomplice at his home in the exclusive Leninsky development. Investigators concluded that Alexander Tyulakov had killed himself, but local media reported that the body showed signs of beating, suggesting that he had been hanged.
To follow the trail of these mysterious deaths you have to go back to before the war started in Ukraine. Three weeks earlier, in the same housing project, 60-year-old Leonid Shulman was found stabbed to death in the bathroom of his home. Shulman heads transportation for Gazprom Invest, a subsidiary of the energy giant that handles its investment projects. A suicide note was left at the scene, Business Insider wrote at the time, but its authenticity is questionable.
A month later, on the morning of February 25, the body of another Gazprom employee was found: Alexander Tyulyakov. Police were reportedly removed from the scene by Gazprom security. Later, suicide was named as the apparent cause.
In early March, a Ukrainian-born oligarch was found dead in his home as well. Michael Watford is 66 years old and made his fortune in oil and gas.
In April, two Russian oligarchs were found dead with their families within a day of each other: Vladislav Aayev and Sergey Protochenya. Vladislav Avayev, former deputy chairman of Gazprombank, was found with gunshot wounds in his Moscow apartment. According to investigators, Abayev allegedly shot his wife and daughter before shooting himself. Three kilometers away, Sergei Protosenya, a former member of the board of directors of the natural gas company Novatex, was also found hanged, and his wife and daughter stabbed to death.
Already a billionaire and former executive of the energy company Lukoil, Alexander Subodin was 43 when he was found dead of a heart attack in a shaman’s basement in Maidichi in May this year. In the same month, Andrei Krukovsky fell to his death from a cliff. The 37-year-old was the director A place of pleasure Krasnaya Polyana.
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