Chairman of Russian oil company that criticised Putin’s invasion dies after plunging from window

The chairman of a Russian oil company that criticised Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been found dead in suspicious circumstances after he plunged from a sixth floor window at a Moscow hospital.

Ravil Maganov, 67, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, died on the spot after falling from a window on the sixth floor of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow at around 7.30am local time.

Russian state media quickly said his death was a suicide but law enforcement sources said there was no suicide note and there were no CCTV cameras on the section of the building where Maganov fell.

Lukoil, of which Maganov was chairman, was one of the few major Russian companies to call for the end of fighting in Ukraine after Moscow invaded.

In a statement in the days after the invasion, the Lukoil board called for an ‘immediate’ end to the fighting, expressing its sympathy to those affected by the ‘tragedy’.

And seven months later, Maganov has been found dead after falling from the hospital window. 

His death is the latest of a number of top Russian officials who have died in suspicious circumstances in recent months – with many mysteriously falling out of windows.

Maganov is also now among a series of Russian energy tycoons killed in suspicious circumstances.

The leading Russian oil tycoon was been found dead in suspicious circumstances after he plunged from a sixth floor window at the Moscow hospital

Maganov, who was awarded a medal by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been chairman of Lukoil since 2020 and was the executive vice president from 2006 to 2020.

Initial reports claimed that Maganov ‘threw himself out of the window’ before being found dead by medical staff. But police are still investigating whether this was a suicide or a suspicious death.

A packet of cigarettes is believed to have been found close to the window from which Maganov fell, leading to the supposition that he may have been smoking before falling.

It was also reported that at the time of his fall his wife was in the next room at the elite hospital. 

Reports suggested the oil executive was in hospital for a routine check-up for a long standing heart problem. 

It is unclear why Maganov was in hospital but his death is the latest of a number of top Russian officials who have died in suspicious circumstances in recent months – with many mysteriously falling to their deaths from windows. Pictured: The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow 

Video shows Russian law enforcement including the state’s security services at the scene today.  

Maganov, whose brother Nail Maganov is the head of another oil company Tatneft, was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky – a medal bestowed to civil servants for 20 years or more of highly meritorious service – in 2019 by Putin. 

His wife Fania is the head of the English First language school in Almetyevsk while his son Ravil is a racing car driver.

Magonov’s mysterious death comes after an anti-Putin, Latvian-American businessman, was found dead in Washington DC, US, on August 14 after he fell from the window of a luxury apartment building. 

Dan Rapoport, 52, was found outside 2400 M Apartments on August 14th shortly before 6pm. His body was discovered in the street along with his cracked cellphone, $2,620 cash, a keyring with a lanyard and a cracked white headphone.

Rapoport, a businessman who ran the iconic Soho Rooms nightclub in Moscow, lived in DC from 2012 until 2016 with his first wife, Irina. 

Dan Rapoport was found dead outside the apartment building in DC where police say he was living. He fell to his death on August 14th

The eight-floor apartment building that Rapoport jumped to his death from, according to police 

Until this year, he had been living in Kyiv with his second wife, Ukrainian virologist Alena, and their young daughter. When was broke out in February, he sent them to Denmark and he returned to the US, planning to bring them over.

It was initially reported that Rapoport killed himself after setting his dog, Boy, free carrying a suicide note and cash.

His widow, Alena, says he did not kill himself and that Pugacheva’s sources are off.  

Three days before his death, Rapoport posted a haunting image on Facebook of Marilyn Brando as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now with the words: ‘The horror, the horror.’ 

He had become obsessed with the war in Ukraine and Putin’s Army, and had always been an outspoken critic of the regime. 

In December, a Russian nationalist who criticised Putin and predicted civil war also mysteriously fell to his death from a fifth-floor window in Moscow.

Yegor Prosvirnin, 35, from Vladivostok, Russia, was found naked ‘under the windows of a residential building’ on Tverskaya Street in the centre of Moscow.

Mr Prosvirnin allegedly threw a ‘knife and gas canister’ from the fifth floor window, whilst neighbours heard ‘screaming and swearing’ before he fell, according to BBC Russia. 

Yegor Prosvirnin, 35, from Vladivostok, Russia, fell to his death from a fifth-floor window in Moscow on December 27

Mr Prosvirnin (pictured) founded the controversial right-wing blog Sputnik and Pogrom, which supported the annexation of Crimea

Mr Prosvirnin founded the controversial right-wing blog Sputnik and Pogrom and predicted the Russian Federation would ‘collapse’ while heavily criticising Putin and predicting a civil war.

During the Covid pandemic, there were a series of mysterious deaths were patients were found dead after jumping out of hospital windows in Russia – like in the case Maganov. There was no suggestion the LUKOIL chairman was suffering from Covid. 

A top Russian scientist with close links to Edinburgh University who was ‘working on a Covid-19 vaccine’ was found dead in suspicious circumstances in St Petersburg in December 2020.

Biologist Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky, 45, best known for his work on fighting cancer, was reported to have fallen in his underwear from a 14th floor window of a high rise residential building.

He also had a stab wound on his body, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK).

Biologist Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky, 45, best known for his work on fighting cancer, was reported to have fallen in his underwear from a 14th floor window of a high rise residential building 

The death follows six Russians plunging to their deaths from hospital windows earlier that year. 

Five of the victims were being treated for coronavirus whilst one victim was a doctor who had complained about PPE shortages. Another doctor fell from a hospital window, but he survived.

In the last year, there have been multiple mystery deaths among some of Putin’s closest allies and associates – especially among gas executives like Magonov.

In May, billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, a former top executive with energy giant Lukoil, was found dead under mysterious circumstances.   

The oligarch, who owned a lucrative shipping company, was reportedly treated with toad venom – put into an incision that had been made in his skin.

Soon afterwards, Subbotin had a heart attack and was given a tranquilliser from the herb valerian.

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin (pictured), 43, a former top executive with Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil, is the latest in a number of high profile, mysterious deaths since Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine

The mogul had sought the advice of shamans to cure a hangover, according to the official version of events, but his death comes as the deaths of other prominent tycoons are under the spotlight which critics of Putin’s regime say could be murders.

In April, Sergei Protosenya, 55, was found hanged outside a Spanish villa, with his wife Natalia, 33, and their teenage daughter Maria found hacked to death with an axe inside.

Investigators initially assumed that Protosenya, who had a fortune of £330million, had killed himself in the Lloret det Mar villa in the Costa Brava.

But local reports said evidence does not conclusively point towards this explanation, as no suicide note was found in the property and it appeared steps had been taken to ensure there were no fingerprints on the murder weapons.

The businessman had served as deputy chairman of natural gas company Novotek, a company closely linked to the Kremlin.

Sergey Protosenya (right), 55, who had a fortune of over £330 million, is believed to have hacked his wife Natalia (centre) and their 18-year-old daughter to death before hanging himself in the courtyard of his Lloret de Mar villa on Spain’s Costa Brava (pictured together)

Vladislav Avayev (pictured), 51, was found in his elite Moscow penthouse alongside his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, Maria, 13

Just days earlier, the body of Vladislav Avayev, 51, was found in his elite Moscow penthouse alongside his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, Maria, 13, in another apparent murder-suicide.

Avayev was previously a vice president at Gazprombank – a bank that was created to work for Russian gas giant Gazprom – and had also been a Kremlin official.

On February 25, the day after the Ukraine war started, the body of Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered by his lover. 

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

Earlier this year, Alexander Tyulakov (left) and Leonid Shulman (right) also died in suspicious circumstances

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 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.

A note was found, the contents of which have not been disclosed, and the Russian Investigative Committee reportedly refused to discuss the deaths.

A knife was found on the bathtub, seemingly out of reach.