Defenestration, death at the shaman
Why are so many Russian top managers dying?
By Jan Ganger
09/14/2022, 3:19 p.m
Russian oil and gas businessmen found dead. Official causes of death: suicide or accident. The accumulation of incidents leads to speculation that it is actually a series of murders.
The list of high-ranking managers from the Russian energy sector who have died under mysterious circumstances is growing. Now the man who was supposed to develop Russia’s arctic mineral resources for the Kremlin has died. According to Russian media reports, Ivan Peshorin, managing director of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic (ERDC), fell from a private yacht near Russki Island near Vladivostok at night at the weekend. His body was found in the Sea of Japan earlier this week. The death of 39-year-olds is the latest case in a mysterious series of deaths. Many cases have ties to state-controlled gas giant Gazprom.
Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, several top Russian managers have died – including Peschorin’s predecessor at ERDC, Igor Nosov. The 43-year-old’s official cause of death: stroke. According to media reports, Peshorin was traveling with a group of friends – they are said to have boarded the ship drunk. A few days before his death, Peshorin took part in an economic forum in Vladivostok, which was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to official sources, the CEO of Russian oil giant Lukoil, Rawil Maganov, died in early September after falling out of a hospital window. A former board colleague of Maganow had only died in May. He is said to have visited a shaman couple after excessive alcohol consumption in order to be cured. But the treatment, which is said to have included animal sacrifices and a bath in rooster’s blood, allegedly went horribly wrong. According to official information, other managers died by suicide or, for example, by falling off a cliff.
The frequency of incidents led to speculation that they were actually murders staged as accidents or suicide. The deaths are no coincidence, says Russian banker German Gorbuntsow, who now lives in London and survived an assassination attempt there in 2012 – allegedly carried out by a Moscow crime syndicate. Gorbuntsov was interviewed for the documentary “Secrets of the Oligarch Wives” produced by the US media group CBS, from which the newspaper “Newsweek” quoted. However, Gorbuntsov does not say in the film why the businessmen should have been murdered.
Speculations about “death list”
Businessman Bill Browder offers a possible explanation: sanctions imposed after Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine may have played a role. For a time, the Briton, with his company Hermitage Capital, was the largest foreign investor in Russia and is now a self-confessed opponent of the Kremlin. His lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered suspected fraud by officials, died in 2009 after being mistreated in Russian custody. “It seems like the pie has gotten smaller,” says Browder. “Now there’s a bunch of people fighting over dwindled amounts of money. And whenever there’s both limited resources and very powerful people at the same time, people start dying.”
According to the Polish think tank “Warsaw Institute”, another explanation is possible: people with connections to the Kremlin may be trying to cover up any traces that lead to fraud in state-owned companies.
The economist and Russia expert Anders Aslund is also speculating in this direction. There is a purge that the Kremlin is probably behind, he told the New York Post. According to Aslund, he is aware of two lists compiled by the Russian secret service containing the names of executives in Russia’s energy sector. The managers are said to have disclosed information about Russian secret service activities abroad. Aslund claims that the lists were presented to Putin. The President approved the liquidation of all the persons mentioned without looking at the lists. “Putin finances many of his operations through Gazprom and Gazprombank,” Alsund said. “The executives who work there know all about it. The gas sector is the most corrupt in all of Russia.”
In April, the former head of Gazprombank Valdislav Avayev died. He is said to have killed his wife and daughter first and then himself. The longtime deputy head of Gazprombank, Igor Volobuyev, denied the official version that Avayev’s death was an extended suicide. “I don’t think he was capable of killing his family,” he told investigative media The Insider. In reality, he was murdered along with his wife and daughter. “Why? It’s hard to say. Maybe he knew something. Maybe he was a threat.”