A senior Russian energy official has died after falling overboard while sailing over the weekend, becoming the latest in a long line of executives linked to Russia's energy sector and the Kremlin to die under mysterious circumstances.
According to the New York Post, Ivan Pechorin, 39, managing director of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (ERDC), was off the coast of Russky Island in the Sea of Japan Saturday when he fell from the boat.
His body was recovered on Monday.
Pechorin had attended the Eastern Economic Forum, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Vlaldivostok just days prior to his death.
“Ivan’s death is an irreparable loss for friends and colleagues, a great loss for the corporation,” ERDC said in a statement on its website. “We offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends.”
Igor Nosov, Pechorin’s former boss, also died suddenly in February at age 43, reportedly of a stroke.
According to the Daily Mail, since the beginning of the year, there has been a series of fatalities involving Russian businessmen with Kremlin connections.
- Ravil Maganov, 67, vice president of the Russian oil company Lukoil, died Sept. 1 in an alleged fall from a sixth-story window at the same Moscow hospital where Putin would later bid farewell to deceased former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Lukoil said Maganov died following a serious illness.
- Yuri Voronov, 61, a senior executive at transportation company Astra Shipping, was shot to death in his swimming pool in July in a Saint Petersburg suburb.
- Alexander Subbotin, another senior Lukoil manager, was found dead near Moscow in May after reportedly visiting a shaman, Russian news agency TASS reported. Authorities were called for an unconscious man suffering from heart failure, the outlet reported, and a criminal investigation was opened.
- Vladislav Avayev, 51, was found shot to death in April, along with his 47-year-old wife and their 13-year-old daughter, in a suspected murder-suicide. The Russian news site kp.ru reported that the businessman likely flew into a jealous rage because he suspected that his wife was pregnant with his personal chauffeur’s child.
- A similar incident took place in Spain days later when police discovered the bodies of 55-year-old Sergey Protosenya, former CEO of Kremlin-linked Novatek, his wife and their teenaged daughter. Protosenya seemingly murdered his family with an axe before hanging himself.
- Vasily Melnikov, the owner of medical supply company MedStom, was found dead along with his family in Nizhny Novgorod in late March, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
- Alexander Tyulakov, a high-ranking official at Russian energy giant Gazprom, allegedly took his own life in February, leaving a suicide note behind. The Mail reports that he was discovered with a noose around his neck, but unconfirmed reports claim that he was severely beaten.
- Leonid Shulman, another top Gazprom official, also reportedly committed suicide in January and left a note. He was found stabbed to death in the same gated community as Tyulakov.
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