(NewsSpace.com) – There’s no shortage of suspicious deaths in Russia. So when the news breaks that yet another enemy or ally of President Vladimir Putin has died, it’s often not a shock. Over the past two years, since Russia invaded Ukraine, there have been a slew of deaths involving oil magnates. And recently, another top executive has died.
On Thursday, March 14, Russian Telegram channels buzzed with the news that Vitaly Robertus, was found hanging in his office. Robertus, who worked as vice president of Lukoil, had been with the company for more than 30 years. According to Baza, a Russian security services-linked channel, he “committed suicide and died of asphyxia.” The executive reportedly didn’t “have any chronic diseases or family problems,” and he had been seen by several people in good spirits before his death. He was 54.
Making matters more suspicious, Robertus is the fourth top executive of Lukoil to die since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. The oil company was very public about its opposition to the invasion.
The first death at Lukoil came in May 2022, when Alexander Subbotin, who was just 44, was found dead in a basement of what officials reported as an apparent heart attack. The basement in question, according to Tass, was often used in “Jamaican voodoo rituals,” and Subbotin had reportedly visited the home the night before in a state of extreme intoxication.
Four months later, Ravil Maganov, the oil company’s chairman, fell from a window of a Moscow hospital. There’s still no explanation as to how that might have happened, but even more concerning is that Lukoil listed his death as following “a serious illness.”
The final death, before Robertus’, was last October, when Vladimir Nekrasov, who chaired Lukoil’s board of directors, died of alleged heart failure.
The spate of deaths has led to a lot of speculation about Russia’s involvement, though there have been no known connections.
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