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The chairman of Russia’s second-largest oil company, Lukoil, died on Thursday after falling from the window of a Moscow hospital where he was being treated after suffering a heart attack.
Ravil Maganov, 67, fell from a sixth-floor window of the Central Clinical Hospital around 7 a.m. local time, state news agency Tass reported.
It was unclear whether Maganov’s death was an accident, suicide or something more sinister.
Conflicting theories immediately emerged in the Russian media, with Tass citing an unnamed law enforcement source who said Maganov had been taking anti-depressants and killed himself.
Baza, an online outlet with links to the police, reported that the oil executive may have slipped while smoking on a balcony.
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Lukoil confirmed Maganov’s death, but said only that he “died as a result of a serious illness.”
“Ravil Maganov made a huge contribution to the development not only of the company, but of the entire Russian oil and gas sector,” the company said in a statement posted on its website that also expressed condolences to his family on behalf of “thousands of Lukoil employees”. .”
Maganov’s unexplained fall is at least the sixth fatal incident this year involving high-profile Russian oil and gas executives whose lives ended in bloody or murky circumstances.
In April, the body of a former director of gas giant Novatek, Sergey Protosenya, was found in a Spanish villa along with that of his wife and 18-year-old daughter.
Spanish news outlet Telecinco reported that police found the mother and daughter in separate rooms with stab wounds. Protosenya was found in the yard, where he would have hanged himself.
Els mitjans espanyols van informar en aquell moment que l’assassinat-suïcidi era la teoria capdavantera de la policia catalana en la seva investigació.
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Novatek, however, seemed to doubt that Protosenya could be responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter. “He established himself as an exceptional person and a wonderful family man,” the company said in a statement. “Unfortunately, speculations have arisen in the media about this issue, but we are convinced that these speculations have no relation to reality.”
A former vice president of Gazprombank, Vladislav Avayev, was also found dead in April next to his wife and daughter in their Moscow apartment.
A month later, former Lukoil tycoon Alexander Subbotin died of heart failure in the Moscow region after receiving homeopathic treatment from a shaman, who offered his clients injections of toad venom.
Lukoil made headlines in March as the only Russian oil producer to call for an end to the war in Ukraine. In a statement issued just days after the February 24 invasion, Lukoil “expressed concern over the ongoing tragic events in Ukraine” and called for “an immediate cessation of the armed conflict.”
Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov resigned at the end of April after being sanctioned by Western countries. Maganov had been Lukoil’s first executive vice president since 1994 and was appointed in 2020 to head its board of directors. His brother, Nail Maganov, is the CEO of another major oil and gas company, Tatneft.
War in Ukraine: what you need to know
The last: Ukraine’s grain shipments are accelerating under the deal struck by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports had pushed up food prices and raised fears of more famine in the Middle East and Africa. At least 18 ships, including loads of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, have left.
The fight: The conflict on the ground continues as Russia uses its advantage in heavy artillery to pound Ukrainian forces, which have at times been able to put up strong resistance. In the south, Ukraine’s hope rests on the liberation of the Russian-occupied Kherson region and eventually Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014. Fears of a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remain , as both sides accuse each other of bombing it.
The weapons: Western arms supplies are helping Ukraine stem Russian advances. US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) allow Ukrainian forces to strike beyond Russian lines against Russian artillery. Russia has used a number of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
Pictures: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground since the beginning of the war; here are some of his most powerful works.
How you can help: Here are ways that those in the United States can help support the Ukrainian people, as well as what people around the world have given.
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