Indian police are investigating the sudden deaths of a rich Russian politician who reportedly criticized the Ukraine warfare and his travelling companion at a luxurious resort, authorities stated this week. The physique of Pavel Antov, 65, was discovered Saturday in a pool of blood outdoors his lodgings in jap Odisha state, the place he was on vacation with three different Russian nationals.
His demise got here two days after one other member of the journey celebration, Vladimir Bidenov, was discovered unconscious after struggling an obvious coronary heart assault on the identical resort and couldn’t be revived.
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Police stated they had been reviewing CCTV footage, questioning resort employees and had been ready on detailed post-mortem experiences, however thus far there was no signal of foul play.
“All possible angles as regards to the deaths of two Russian nationals are being verified,” regional police chief Rajesh Pandit instructed AFP.
Bidenov’s coronary heart assault had seemingly been attributable to binge ingesting and a attainable drug overdose, he stated.
“So far it seems that Antov accidentally fell from the hotel terrace,” he added.
“He was probably disturbed by the death of his friend and went to the hotel terrace and likely fell to his death from there.”
The officer stated Antov and his mates had arrived within the state in mid-December and visited a number of areas earlier than arriving at their resort in Rayagada in the beginning of final week.
Two native journey brokers accompanying the celebration had additionally been questioned, together with the opposite two Russian members of the vacation group.
The BBC reported that Antov was a widely known sausage tycoon who based the Vladimir Standard meat processing plant. In 2019 Forbes estimated his fortune at some $140 million on the high of Russia’s wealthy record of lawmakers and civil servants, the BBC reported.
Since 2018, Antov was a member of a regional parliament 90 miles east of Moscow, representing President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia celebration.
He performed an essential position on the legislative meeting, heading a committee on agrarian coverage and ecology, the BBC reported. The meeting’s deputy chairman Vyacheslav Kartukhin stated he had died in “tragic circumstances”.
In June, Russian media printed a WhatsApp message attributed to Antov that stated a Kremlin missile bombardment on Ukraine was “terrorism.”
Antov took to the Russian social media community VK to disclaim writing the message, insisting that he supported Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Several high-profile Russian tycoons have died in mysterious circumstances for the reason that Ukraine warfare started. In September the pinnacle of Russia’s oil big Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, apparently fell from a hospital window in Moscow. At the time, the state-run company TASS reported he died by suicide.
Other high-profile Russian vitality executives have died beneath murky circumstances this 12 months.
In May, Russian retailers reported that Lukoil’s former high government and board member Alexander Subbotin died after receiving doubtful remedy from a “shaman” that concerned an infusion of poison from a toad.
In April, two former high-ranking managers of Novatek, Russia’s second-largest pure fuel producer, and Gazprombank, a big financial institution linked to a Gazprom fuel company, had been discovered useless together with their members of the family. State media reported that they killed their spouses and kids after which died by suicide.