More conspiracy talk as Putin energy executive dies after falling overboard
Ivan Pechorin, 39, was sailing his boat in the Sea of Japan when he fell into the water. His dead body was recovered two days later.
Another Russian energy sector executive has been found dead. In this latest case, it is Ivan Pechorin, 39, a senior executive at the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (ERDC).
What happened to Ivan Pechorin?
Pechorin was in charge of developing and commercially exploiting Russia’s natural resources in its Arctic territories. He reportedly died after “falling overboard” while sailing his yacht off Russia’s Pacific coast near Russky Island, near Cape Ignatiev, in the Sea of Japan.
According to the Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti, the administration of Vladivostok (where Russia's maneuvers have been taking place together with countries such as China and India), a body was found near the town of Beregovoe. In addition, just a few days earlier, Pechorin had attended the Eastern Economic Forum, organized by President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.
"Iván's death is an irreparable loss for friends and colleagues, a great loss for the corporation," read an official statement from the corporation where he worked.
The former CEO of the corporation where Pechorin worked, Igor Nosov, 43, also died suddenly in February of a stroke.
Deceased oligarchs since Ukraine invasion began
Vladislav Avayev worked for the Kremlin and was vice-president of Gazprombank. His eldest daughter, Anastasia, arrived home to find her father shot dead and her mother Yelena and 13-year-old sister Maria lying stabbed to death in their beds on the 14th floor of a luxury flat in Moscow.
Sergey Protosenya, a multimillionaire, died in Spain, in the Catalan town of Lloret del Mar. He was 55 years old and a senior executive of the gas company Novatek. He was found hanged in the garden of the villa he had rented with his family. His wife Natalia and daughter Maria had also been stabbed to death.
Alexander Tyulakov, a senior Gazprom finance and security official, aged 61, died on 25 February, hanged from a beam in the garage of his country house, also near St Petersburg.
Leonid Shulman, head of transport for Gazprom Invest, was found dead in the bathroom of his ‘dacha’ near St Petersburg, in a pool of blood and next to a suicide note. This actually happened in January, just before the invasion.
Mickhail Watford, a Ukrainian oligarch, was found hanged in the garage of his mansion in Surrey, south London, on 3 March. He was 66 years old and had been in the UK for two decades.
Vasily Melnikov, who died on 24 March; he worked for the medical firm MedStom, was found with his wife and two children, aged 10 and 4, all stabbed to death at his home in Nizhny Novgorod.
Alexander Subbotin, who died on 8 May, a former senior manager of the Lukoil energy company, was found on Sunday in the basement of a shaman’s house in Mytishchi, a town northeast of Moscow, reportedly dead of cardiac arrest after ingesting toad poison.
Ravil Maganov, died on 1 September after falling from a sixth-floor hospital window in Moscow. He had been president of the Lukoil oil company since 2020. The oil company had called for an end to the war.
Ivan Pechorin, 39, a senior executive of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (ERDC), was sailing off the coast of Russky Island in the Sea of Japan on Saturday 10 September when he fell overboard from the ship at full speed. His body was recovered on Monday.
How have the oligarchs died?
As a quick summary, these oligarchs have died by the following different means: shot, hanged, stabbed, poisoned, falling, drowned. Given the situation, and the dissent that has surrounded the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, many are unwilling to believe this is just a coincidence.