Mystery as tycoon found dead in mansion pool becomes sixth Russian millionaire to die in unexplained circumstances | The Sun

2022-07-05

A SENIOR senior executive linked to Russian energy giant Gazprom has been found dead in his mansion swimming pool.

Multi-millionaire Yuri Voronov, 61, is the latest Russian millionaire to die in mysterious circumstances recently.

Voronov was head of a transport and logistics company that had lucrative contracts with the gas behemoth in the Arctic.

Since the start of the year, four gas industry bosses tyrant and a top medical executive have died in mysterious circumstances.

Voronov's body, who exhibited a close-range gunshot wound to the head, was found in the swimming pool of his mansion in an elite village close to St Petersburg.

A semi-automatic Grand Power pistol was found nearby, while “several spent cartridges” were located at the bottom of the pool.

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The Russian Investigative Committee is probing his death which it initially linked to “a quarrel with partners”.

His wife reportedly told investigators that Voronov for several weeks had believed he was being swindled by contractors and partners who had “behaved dishonourably”.

The businessman feared he had “lost a lot of money”.

No visitors to his home in Leningrad region were spotted by security cameras.

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives earlier reported in elite homes near St Petersburg have sparked suspicions these apparent suicides may have been murders.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered by his lover the day after war started in Ukraine in February.

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His neck was in a noose in his £500,000 home .

Yet reports say he had been badly beaten shortly before he “took his own life”, leading to speculation he was under intense pressure.

In the same Russian elite Leninsky gated housing development in Leningrad region three weeks earlier, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, an ex-top manager Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil and owner of a shipping company, was found dead in May after “taking advice from shamans”.

One theory is that he was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.

In 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-suicide.

Last week, a multi-millionaire, who had made his fortune with his mobile phone empire, and his wife, were found stabbed to death in another case that raised suspicions.

Naked Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20.