24 October 2023 , 17:10
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The third top executive at Russia’s second largest oil company has died mysteriously within a year and a half.
Vladimir Nekrasov, 66, chairman of the Lukoil board of directors, died “suddenly”. There has been a spate of deaths of prominent Russians linked to the energy sector since the start of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Russian state media said the “preliminary” conclusions of doctors was that Nekrasov suffered “acute heart failure”.
His death follows that of tycoon Ravil Maganov, 67, who fell from a window of Moscow’s elite Central Clinical Hospital, also known as the Kremlin clinic, in September last year. There were suspicions of murder but officially Maganov had been in hospital for a longstanding heart problem and fell from a sixth floor window, dying on the spot.
Lukoil vice-president Ravil Maganov (right), pictured with Vladimir Putin (left) (Kremlin/EAST2WEST NEWS)On the same morning, Putin - who had earlier decorated Maganov with a top honour - swept into the hospital to pay his final respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who had died the same week. Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, also linked to energy giant Lukoil where he was a top manager, was found dead in May after “taking advice from shamans”. One theory is that Subbotin - who also owned a shipping company - was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.
Lukoil initially appeared less than loyal to Putin when the war started, demanding negotiations to end the fighting. One week into the fighting, the company’s board including both Nekrasov and Maganov issued a statement on Putin’s invasion which “expresses its concern over the ongoing tragic events in Ukraine and its deepest sympathy to all those affected by this tragedy.
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“We are in favour of an early cessation of the armed conflict and fully support its resolution through the negotiation process and diplomatic means.” There have been claims of “creeping nationalisation” at Lukoil.
Nakrasov - who had been honoured by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev - had taken over from Maganov as chairman. At the time he was Lukoil’s vice president. He was awarded The Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th degree.
Among other cases, in April wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13. He had high level links to leading Russian financial institution Gazprombank. Friends have disputed reports that he was jealous after his wife admitted she was pregnant by their driver. There are claims he had access to the financial secrets of the Kremlin elite.
Several days later multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, after evidently killing with an axe his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria. He was a former deputy chairman of Novatek, a company also closely linked to the Kremlin. As with Avayev, it is suggested this may have been an assassination made to appear a murder-and-suicide. Naked Yevgeny Palant, 47, a mobile phone multi-millionaire, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20.
Nekrasov had avoided sanctions by the West over the war. He had also held two separate EU passports, for Austria and the Czech Republic, as well as his Russian citizenship, it is believed. BAZA media reported that he died at his home in Moscow.