23 February 2023 , 17:06
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A well-connected former spy and close to Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence chief has died in mysterious circumstances near Moscow.
Viatcheslav Rovneiko, 59, was "found unconscious" late at night at his home in an elite gated village.
Doctors could not save him and circumstances of his death were unclear.
However, there is an investigation underway.
The reports on his mysterious death say there are "no signs of a violent death were found on his body".
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The mysterious Rovneiko is believed to have been a Cold War era KGB spy working in Belgium with Sergei Naryshkin, now head of the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency.
He is also reported to have been close to billionaire Gennady Timchenko, seen as one of Putin’s most loyal oligarchs.
A man with no face - a look of a business profile on Viatcheslav Rovneiko by one of Russian business websites (social media/e2w)Rovneiko’s former business partner was Leonid Dyachenko, whose then wife Tatiana was the powerful daughter of President Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first president.
The pair founded Urals Energy, one of several major oil players he was involved with. The oil company was later floated in London in 2005.
He had business interests linked to Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and Cyprus, according to reports, and was also reported in 2006 to have held a Belgian passport.
Tatiana Dyachenko with then husband Leonid Dyachenko (Kommersant)Rovneiko was a graduate of Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], a training school for spies and diplomats.
Russian business databases showed the ex-spy as a man with no face, and he was known as highly secretive.
He was married to fellow MGIMO student Irina, 63, and their son Nikolay, 40, worked as an investment banker in London, and studied at Kingston University.
The news comes as just last week a man who worked as an IT specialist for the foreign ministry had been discovered dead in mysterious circumstances while on the job.
The individual, who was 42-years-old, fell from a "low height" and suffered head wounds in Moscow.
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Fellow MGIMO student Irina, 63, known to be married to secret ex-spy Rovneiko (social media/e2w)The IT specialist was discovered in the offices of the Russian foreign ministry, which is led by veteran minister Sergei Lavrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While the name of the official was not confirmed, it was noted that it was similar to the word " ," and one report indicated that he was named Mikhail Ukrainets.
This man's untimely death comes amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of a suspected 200,000 individuals over the course of almost a year.