Russian President Vladimir Putin has become a source of controversy in his home country, after the the recent death of a major oil company executive coincided with Putin's visit to a Moscow hospital.
On Thursday, Lukoil, one of Russia's largest private oil companies, said in a grievous statement that board Chair Ravil Maganov had "passed away after a severe illness."
However, a day later, there were new reports of Maganov falling out of the 6th-story window of Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, and his body being found on hospital grounds.
Some sources claimed Maganov accidentally tripped and fell while smoking, stating a pack of cigarettes had been found by the window.
Also, according to Russian news site RBK, police were investigating the possibility of suicide in Maganov's death.
The hospital where Maganov reportedly died is reportedly the same place where Putin brought flowers to the casket of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died last week at age 91.
Putin visited Gorbachev's casket on Friday — the same day of Maganov's apparent death at Central Clinical Hospital.
Some media outlets have begun to wonder if there's a connection between Putin's casket visit and Maganov's death.
Lukoil was firmly against Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in late February. A few weeks later, Lukoil publicly called for an "immediate cessation of the armed conflict."
In May, Aleksandr Subbotin — a former top executive at Lukoil — was reportedly found dead in the basement of a medicinal shaman's Moscow residence.
According to Euronews.com, at least six other Russian oligarchs "have died in strange circumstances" almost since the military conflict with Ukraine launched.
Euronews says that each death involved someone of immense wealth, possessing ties to Russian gas, having links to the Kremlin, and invoking a public anti-war stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
For years, President Putin has had to deal with rumors or accusations of killing, harming, or intimidating political opponents.
The publication Ukraine Today alleges that Putin has been directly/indirectly responsible for 650,000 deaths during his 22-year regime with Russia.