Putin's millionaire crony found dead in second mystery death in just 48 hours
A businessman with links to Russia's security services has become the latest high-profile figure among the country's elite to be found dead.
The body of 40-year-old Anton Cherepennikov was found in his office in Moscow, according to reports which said he had died from "cardiac arrest".
Cherepennikov was head of the country's largest IT company, ICS Holding, which was used by Russia's Federal Security Service for surveillance of citizens' online activities, according to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported.
The cause of his death was immediately treated with suspicion by one longtime friend Vasily Polonsky, who insisted: “I do not believe [he died of] cardiac arrest. The exact cause of the entrepreneur's death will be determined later."
Anton Cherepennikov, a key figure in Internet and phone tapping in Putin’s Russia (Social media/east2west news)He is the second person in Putin's regime to have died in 48 hours, following the report that billionaire oligarch Igor Kudryakov, a former government official and wealthy businessman, was also found dead in his Moscow apartment.
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One opposition source said Cherepennikov was "an absolutely key tool in Putin’s repression." He continued: "His assassination cannot be ruled out as the security apparatus becomes desperate due to the failing war."
His success in acting as the state’s electronic snooper meant a profit of £172 million for his operation, it was reported. Cherepennikov was seen as close to his "idol", Kremlin-friendly oligarch Alisher Usmanov, formerly a shareholder of Arsenal football club in London.
The web sleuth studied at the prestigious Bauman Moscow State Technical University and Moscow State University of Civil Engineering. The news comes as Igor Girkin, an extreme nationalist militia leader turned blogger, was arrested at his Moscow flat and detained for two months on extremism charges for criticising Putin.
He argued that total mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory and recently criticised Putin as a "nonentity" and a "cowardly mediocrity." He now faces up to five years in prison.
Girkin was convicted of murder in the Netherlands, in absentia, last year for his role in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine that had 10 Britons on board.
Strelkov has over 875,000 subscribers on his messaging app channel, the Club of Angry Patriots, where he issued a statement protesting his detention as a "provocation" that "undermines the population’s trust in law enforcement organs" and "carries extremely negative consequences for the country’s stability."
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