Several prominent Russian businessmen have died by apparent suicide in just three months

Backlinks with Gazprom

In the very first of the deaths documented this calendar year, a top rated government at Gazprom was found useless in his cottage in the village of Leninsky in the vicinity of Leningrad on January 30, 2022, in accordance to Russian condition media outlet RIA Novosti.

RIA noted that a suicide take note was located at the scene and that the investigators were investigating the dying as a suicide. Russian national broadcaster RenTv has identified the man as Leonid Shulman, the head of transportation at Gazprom Make investments.

Just a thirty day period immediately after that, yet another leading executive at Gazprom was identified useless in the exact village. Alexander Tyulakov was learned lifeless in his garage on February 25, in accordance to Novaya Gazeta, an unbiased Russian newspaper. Novaya Gazeta described he died by suicide.

CNN’s phone calls to Gazprom have not been returned.

CNN has asked Russia’s Investigative Committee for comment on the two scenarios but has not received a response.

Two far more Russian businessmen with hyperlinks to Gazprom died in obvious murder-suicide incidents in April.

A person of them, Vladislav Avayev, the former vice-president of Gazprombank, was discovered lifeless with his wife and daughter in his Moscow condominium on April 18, according to TASS.

Citing a source in legislation enforcement, TASS claimed authorities had been investigating the Avayevs’ deaths as a murder-suicide.

Yulia Ivanova, a consultant of the Investigative Committee for Moscow, was quoted by Tass as indicating that a relative learned the Avayevs’ bodies following currently being advised by the household driver and the nanny that they could not call them on the telephone or get into the condominium, due to the fact the door was shut from the within.

Igor Volobuev, a former VP of Gazprombank who a short while ago still left Russia for Ukraine, told CNN that he did not believe Avayev killed himself.

“His work was to offer with personal banking, that suggests dealing with VIP shoppers. He was in cost of pretty huge amounts of revenue. So, did he destroy himself? I don’t believe so. I consider he knew anything and that he posed some sort of possibility,” Volobuev explained to CNN in April.

Russia’s Investigative Committee did not respond to CNN’s request for remark on this situation.

Just a working day later on, on April 19, Sergey Protosenya, a former executive at the fuel producer Novatek, which is partly owned by Gazprom, was found dead at his household in Lloret de Mar, a Mediterranean vacation resort around Barcelona.

The bodies of his spouse and daughter, demonstrating signs of having experienced violence, have been located inside the family’s luxury house, an formal resource shut to the investigation explained to CNN very last week, when the overall body of Protosenya was located in the backyard garden outside the house, in accordance to the source.

Son thoughts original results

Catalan law enforcement in the province of Girona, in which the town of Lloret de Mar is located, advised CNN on Friday that they have because finished their investigation into the case and despatched the results to a courtroom.

The police power explained its summary was that the deaths were a double murder and subsequent suicide.

Speaking to the Daily Mail in April, Protosenya’s son questioned that version of occasions, suggesting as a substitute that his father was murdered.

“The Catalan law enforcement have taken statements from the son. Other hypotheses have been ruled out. Also ruled out was a triple murder,” the police’s press formal instructed CNN at that time. “That this was the operate of the Russian mafia? Very well, no,” the official extra.

Novatek, Protosenya’s previous employer, mentioned he was “a fantastic individual and a excellent family male.”

“Regrettably, there have been speculations on this subject in the media, but we are persuaded that these speculations are not relevant to reality. We hope that the law enforcement companies of Spain will perform a complete and aim investigation and sort out what occurred, ” the business mentioned in a statement.

Coroner’s ruling

Mikhail Watford, a Ukrainian-born Russian oil and gas billionaire, was found lifeless in his dwelling in Surrey, England on February 28.

Surrey Police told CNN it did not think there ended up any suspicious conditions.

A further Russian businessman, Vasily Melnikov, was uncovered lifeless along with his relatives in Nizhny Novgorod in late March, in accordance to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

Melnikov owned MedStom, a health-related provides company. According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, a 43-calendar year-previous guy, his wife, 41, and two small children aged 4 and 10 ended up located stabbed to dying on March 23.

The committee did not title Melnikov, but the ages of the useless and the place of the incident match the Kommersant report.

The regional branch of the investigative committee has not current the status of its investigation and did not return CNN’s request for comment. At the time of the incident, in March, it explained there “had been no signals of unauthorized entry into the apartment,” and that “knives had been discovered and seized.”

“[Investigators] are thinking of many variations of what transpired, including the murder of the youngsters and spouse by the head of the loved ones, adopted by self-inflicted death,” the committee explained.

How to get aid: In the United States, call the Countrywide Suicide Avoidance Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. The Global Affiliation for Suicide Avoidance and Befrienders Worldwide also can provide get in touch with facts for disaster centers around the entire world.