Russian energy boss who criticised Ukraine war dies after falling from sixth floor window
State-linked media was quick to declare the death of Ravil Maganov as a suicide
The chairman of Lukoil, one of Russia’s largest oil companies and one of the only Russian businesses to criticise Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, has fallen from a sixth-floor window of a hospital in Moscow.
State-linked media was quick to declare the death of Ravil Maganov as a suicide.
But there are reportedly no CCTV cameras around that part of the Central Clinical Hospital because of renovations.
Incident happened at same hospital where Mikhail Gorbachev died
Media reports said that he had been receiving treatment for a heart condition at the hospital and that he had also complained of being depressed.
The hospital in the centre of the Moscow is one of the most city's prestigious. It generally treats many high-profile patients and was where Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev died earlier this week. Security is usually tight and surveillance heavy.
In a statement, Lukoil said: ”(Its) many thousands of employees mourn deeply for this grievous loss and express their sincere condolences to Ravil Maganov's family.”
Lukoil is considered controversial in Russia because it was one of the only companies to condemn Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement in March, Lukoil described the invasion “tragic” and called for the “earliest [possible] end to the armed conflict”.
Maganov had worked for Lukoil since the early 1990s and had been considered a Kremlin loyalist.
He is the latest of several Russian businessmen to die in mysterious circumstances since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in February, although Maganov is by far the most senior.
In May, a former senior manager at Lukoil, Alexander Subbotin, also died under unusual circumstances.
Moscow has been increasingly tense in recent days.
Until only a month or so ago, Russia’s war in Ukraine felt a long way off but the assassination of pro-Kremlin journalist Darya Dugina in mid-August, the arson attack on the car of a senior military commander last week and the start of an army recruitment campaign have changed the mood on the street.
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