10 Mysterious Deaths of The Russians

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as soon as stated: “I can not forecast to you the motion of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inner an enigma.” These words, first uttered in 1939, still ring real nowadays. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union over thirty years ago, many nonetheless regard Russia as a land of spies, ambiguity, and secrets. A land in which people die mysteriously.

Such mysterious deaths have no longer been restricted to Russia’s borders either. London and Berlin are just two examples of towns wherein Russian individuals have died underneath suspicious occasions. Many of those deaths remain unsolved, even many years later. In this list, we test ten of the maximum mysterious Russian deaths.

01 Natalya Estemirova

Last but no longer least is Natalya Estermirova. An award-winning human rights campaigner and pal of Anna Politkovskaya, Estemirova changed into born in the Russian province of Saratov. A graduate of Grozny University in Chechnya, she went on to document on human rights abuses, specifically in the course of the Second Chechen War in 1999. She later joined the human rights organisation Memorial and wrote articles for liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

On July 15, 2009, Estemirova became kidnapped on her way to paintings in Grozny, Chechnya. Her body turned into later observed in a wooded area in neighboring Ingushetia with bullet wounds in her head and chest. While it did no longer locate sufficient evidence of State involvement, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the Russian government had didn't conduct a full and thorough investigation into the murder. No one become ever convicted of her homicide.^[01]

02 Boris Berezovsky

Next is Boris Berezovsky, a person who has already featured prominently on this list. Once Russia’s second richest guy, Berezovsky fled Russia in 2000 amid accusations of fraud and money laundering. He went to the United Kingdom, wherein he turned into granted political asylum in 2003. Extradition requests had been refused, an awful lot to the ire of the Russian authorities. Berezovsky, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, had apparently been the goal of an supposed assassination (foiled through his acquaintance, the late Alexander Litvinenko from #8).

In evaluation to his formerly lavish lifestyle, closer to the quit of his existence, Berezovsky become said to be in monetary problems after losing a disastrous court docket case against fellow oligarch Roman Abramovich. He turned into reported to have ultimately fallen right into a deep melancholy. Berezovsky became located useless at his UK home in March 2013 with a ligature around his neck, indicating suicide. However, a coroner later recorded an “open verdict” due to contradictory evidence of whether or not he took his very own existence or was unlawfully killed.^[02]

03 Nikolai Glushkov

Former deputy director of the Russian airline Aeroflot and acquaintance of the aforementioned Boris Berezovsky (see wide variety eight), Nikolai Glushkov is some other debatable discern to die under mysterious circumstances. After being accused of fraud, Glushkov fled Russia and become granted political asylum inside the UK, wherein he lived till his death. A Kremlin critic, Glushkov became due to attend Commercial Court in London on March 12, 2018, to defend himself towards fraud claims. However, he never showed up. His daughter determined his frame at his domestic later that day.

A coroner located that, in spite of attempts to make his death appear to be a suicide, Glushkov turned into, in fact, strangled in his very own domestic via a 3rd celebration. A pathology record determined that the accidents have been “consistent with a neck-preserve, carried out from behind, and the assailant being in the back of the victim.” Despite contacting over 2,000 witnesses, the homicide stays unsolved.^[03]

04 Vladimir Marugov

Vladimir Marugov, in any other case known as Russia’s “sausage king” because of his ownership of multiple sausage factories, turned into brutally killed at his us of a estate outside of Moscow in late 2020. On the morning of the assault, Marugov become sitting in his outside sauna with his partner Sabina Gaziyeva. Suddenly, masked intruders broke into the estate, tying the couple up and stressful cash. Gaziyeva controlled to get away. However, Marugov’s frame was later determined through police next to the crossbow used within the assault.

The guy accused of the homicide, Alexander Mavridi, became finally detained. Yet, in August 2021, Mavridi, at the side of several other detainees, controlled to escape detention. However, he changed into later stuck via facial recognition technology. At the time of his homicide, Marugov changed into going via a bitter divorce along with his ex-wife. In a bizarre twist, it turned into stated that Marugov’s ex-wife changed into a close acquaintance of the accused killer. She denies prior information of the attack.^[04]

05 Sergei Magnitsky

In 2009, Russian tax advisor Sergei Magnitsky—just 37—died in a Russian jail under suspicious circumstances. Magnitsky became a attorney and tax auditor at Firestone Duncan, a Moscow regulation firm, and labored with Hermitage Capital, an asset management company led by means of American Bill Browder. Browder become banned from Russia in 2005 as a national security hazard. This ban came after his organisation accused State groups of large-scale corruption.

In 2008, the offices of Hermitage Capital were raided and documents seized. These documents have been used to transfer ownership of several retaining agencies after which correctly observe for a tax rebate of $230 million. At the time, Magnitsky have been defending Hermitage Capital.

In November 2008, Magnitsky became himself arrested on allegations of complicity in tax evasion. He died at the same time as in detention after repeated pleas for clinical help. His respectable cause of loss of life was toxic shock and coronary heart failure because of pancreatitis. However, allegations that he became crushed by using guards before he died have been discovered to be credible with the aid of the European Court of Human Rights. It additionally concluded that Magnitsky had been disadvantaged of hospital therapy. In 2013, a Moscow court docket located Magnitsky responsible of tax evasion posthumously.^[05]

06 Yegor Prosvirnin

In overdue 2021, any other mysterious death become mentioned in Russia, with the deceased once more falling from a window. This time, the sufferer fell from his condo window in primary Moscow. The deceased changed into named as thirty-five-year-vintage journalist Yegor Prosvirnin. Prosvirnin changed into a arguable proper-wing journalist who founded the weblog “Sputnik and Pogrom.” The internet site become blocked through the Russian government in 2017 for selling ideas of “ethnic and spiritual hatred.”

Mysteriously, Prosvirnin’s frame was located bare below the windows of a residential constructing. Moments before his loss of life, Prosvirnin allegedly threw a knife and fuel can (some record pepper spray canister) from the window. Neighbors had also heard screaming and swearing before he fell. Some preliminary reports suggest he might also have been intoxicated, and his dying is in all likelihood both a suicide or accident.^[06]

07 Unnamed Diplomat

On October 19, 2021, the frame of a Russian diplomat changed into found out of doors the Russian embassy in Berlin. The 35-yr-antique man had apparently fallen out of a window at the higher ground of the embassy. The Russian embassy stated the dying as a “tragic twist of fate” however made no further remarks. The deceased changed into suggested to be the son of General Alexey Zhalo, the deputy director of the FSB’s Second Directorate and head of the FSB’s Directorate for Protection of Constitutional Order—that is involved with terrorism instances.

The German authorities requested permission to carry out an post-mortem, however this changed into refused via the Russian embassy. Instead, the sufferer’s frame changed into repatriated back to Russia. German police did no longer look at the demise due to the deceased’s diplomatic popularity. This is now not the primary incident of its type. In 2003, some other employee on the same embassy also died after falling from an upper window.^[07]

08 Alexander Litvinenko

“You might also succeed in silencing one guy, but the howl of protest from round the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, for your ears for the rest of your lifestyles.” These have been the final words of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006 after being poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium.

Born within the Russian metropolis of Voronezh, Litvinenko spent much of his youth in the North Caucasus. After attending military university, he became recruited as an officer of the KGB (Russian security offerings now called the FSB) inside the Organized Crime Department. In this role, Litvinenko become given orders to assassinate oligarch Berezovsky, which he refused. He later publicly denounced the FSB in a press conference. Fearing for his existence, Litvinenko and his family fled to the United Kingdom, in which they have been granted asylum.

On November 1, 2006, Litvinenko fell sick. Two days later, he become admitted to the medical institution in London. He died on November 23, 2006. A UK government inquiry concluded that Litvinenko died after ingesting radioactive poison from a teapot in a London lodge. The inquiry taken into consideration it a “sturdy chance” that the killing changed into directed by means of the Russian protection services (FSB).^[08]

09 Anna Politkovskaya

On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in the elevator of her condo block. She became shot within the heart, shoulder, and head. An investigative journalist for the liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Politkovskaya had been worried in reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya. Politkovskaya was a vocal critic of the Kremlin as well as of the then Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. Politkovskaya become murdered at the birthday of the Russian president and only days after Kadyrov’s thirtieth birthday celebrations. Ominously, in an interview with Politkovskaya in 2004, Kadyrov referred to her as an “enemy” and said that she ought to be shot.

Many years later, in 2014, the final trial (after preceding trials and acquittals) took place. The actual murderer, Rustam Makhmudov, became sentenced to existence in prison. Other accomplices were given various sentences. However, all over again, the individual that ordered the killing remains a mystery.^[09]

10 Boris Nemtsov

On February 27, 2015, politician and previous Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov changed into assassinated within a stone’s throw from the Kremlin partitions. At 11:31 within the nighttime, Nemtsov and his accomplice, Anna Duritskaya, have been strolling along the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in significant Moscow when Nemtsov become shot four times from in the back of, dying immediately. Immediately afterward, the assailant fled the scene in a white or gray automobile. Anna Duritskaya managed to get away unharmed.

Following the assassination, an research turned into launched by the Russian government, with the Russian president overseeing the investigation personally. In overdue July 2017, 4 Chechen guys were discovered guilty and given prison sentences between 11 and 19 years as accomplices. The convicted killer was handed a twenty-year sentence. However, to these days, the individual that ordered the killing has not been discovered.

Suspicions hold to surround the murder as Nemtsov turned into a popular and vocal opponent of the Russian government. On the evening in question, Nemtsov had given a radio interview wherein he had accused President Putin of mendacity over Russia’s army takeover of Crimea. At the time of the homicide, all nearby protection cameras had been switched off for protection.^[10]