The syndrome of sometimes superficially masked, sometimes simply mysterious deaths of Russian top managers leaves its traces not only in Russia but also in England, Spain, France, Dubai, India, and Argentina.
The intensity of strange deaths of Russian top managers over the past three years is striking, as if there is a return to the turbulent 1990s.
On September 1st, 2022, news came from the Central Clinical Hospital (CCH), where the political and business elite of Russia often receives treatment: 67-year-old chairman of the board of directors of Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, bid farewell to life.
“This morning, Maganov fell from the window of a ward at the CCH. He died from the injuries sustained,” a source from the Interfax agency reported. The Investigative Committee informed the Kommersant newspaper that it could be a suicide.
The death of Ravil Maganov: Surveillance cameras were not functioning…
Project VCHK-OGPU noted that the top manager died around the time when the President of the Russian Federation arrived at the hospital to lay flowers at the coffin of former USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who recently passed away in the same CCH.
Vladimir Putin decided not to attend the official funeral ceremony on September 3rd, he bid farewell to Gorbachev privately.
“The incident occurred around 7:00 am Moscow time,” a source familiar with the situation told TASS.
Maganov died a few hours before Putin’s arrival.
“This is not our issue at all,” said the President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov in response to a question about commenting on the death of the chairman of Lukoil’s board of directors.
“I think it’s not so much about coincidence as it is about Maganov being less protected at that time than usual,” noted former State Duma deputy Maria Maksakova, hinting that the then head of Lukoil was under serious corporate security at the hospital. At least two people were supposed to be near to the oil magnate: Maganov’s wife was constantly in the adjacent ward.
However, the Federal Security Service personnel accompanying Putin were fully entitled to instruct the Lukoil president’s bodyguards to leave the perimeter, which is highly likely.
“He was alone in a separate comfortable ward, visited doctors throughout the day, and underwent various examinations,” a source in law enforcement agencies told the Moscow correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
“Moreover, his wife was also checked in the hospital. But according to the rules of the medical institution, spouses were supposed to stay in separate wards.
“At the time of Maganov’s death, the woman was sleeping in another ward on the same floor.”
According to one version, the top manager went out to smoke and accidentally fell down; his cigarette pack was found on the balcony.
However, “he did not leave any suicide notes,” clarified the media resource Baza, also noting that the top manager was on the balcony of the part of the CCH building where repairs were taking place.
His section of the hospital was not intended for patient visits. In addition, as reported by Baza, none of the surveillance cameras from the facade, where Maganov could have fallen, were functioning.
In the only photograph that circulated on the internet immediately after the death of Lukoil’s president, only a bag containing the body could be seen on the ground near the hospital wall.
Visually, it is impossible to determine that it contained Maganov’s body.
The media resource Readovka reported that the top manager’s body was not immediately taken to the morgue; most likely it was taken for forensic examination.
The investigation considered the version of suicide: however, in Lukoil’s press release, strangely, it was already stated in the first sentence that Maganov’s death occurred “after a severe illness.”
When due to sanctions Vagit Alekperov was forced to leave the post of president of Lukoil, a person was needed at the helm of the company who could be fully trusted. Maganov turned out to be the ideal candidate.
He traditionally supervised the oil and gas exploration block, serving as the first vice president of the company since 1994.
It was thanks to Maganov that the oil and gas provinces in the Caspian and Baltic Seas were developed, and the successful development of a modern oil project in the Komi Republic was initiated.
And it was precisely on the birthday of Alekperov that the “exit through the window” of Maganov occurred.
According to information available to The Sun, the oilman was killed at the order of Vladimir Putin.