The daughter of a Russian exile found dead in his London home has reportedly gone into hiding.
Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was discovered by his family late on Monday night at his suburban home in New Malden and his body was taken away in a private ambulance almost 24 hours later.
It is understood Natalia Glushkova, his daughter, found her father with ‘strangulation’ marks on his neck.
Last night it was alleged the Russian businessman was riddled with £87million worth of debt, which has now been passed onto his children, prompting Natalia to vanish.
Natalia Glushkova (pictured), Nikolai Glushkov’s daughter, found her father with ‘strangulation’ marks on his neck
It is understood the Natalia has now gone into hiding as Russian businesses prepare to go after her over her father’s unpaid debt
Nikolai Glushkov arriving at the High Court annex on October 18, 2011, wearing a pink dickie bow
Forensics officers enter a tent outside a house in New Malden which has been sealed off after Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov, a close friend of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, was found dead
Police say Glushkov’s death is being treated as ‘unexplained’ and have taken the unusual step of putting counter-terrorism officers in charge of the investigation.
Scotland Yard stated it was because of people associated with Glushkov’s past and tonight it transpired these include the anti-Putin oligarch Boris Berezovsky who was found dead in England in 2013 and Andrey Lugovoy.
Glushkov was jailed in Russia for embezzlement in the early 2000s, and Lugovoy – the prime suspect in the poisoning of Alexander Litvenenko – tried to break him out of prison.
Russian media speculated the cause of death could have been suicide, something his friends have vehemently denied.
They deny that he would have taken his life because by doing so his £87million debts would fall on his two children.
After legal decisions in Russian courts over his alleged Aeroflot debt, lawyers were planning to chase him to Britain.
But Glushkov intended to challenge the Russian money grab.
However, now he has died, Russian prosecutors plan to saddle these debts on his heirs, daughter and son Natalia and Dmitry.
‘After receiving confirmed information about the death of the debtor, the bailiff will replace him with his legal successors,” said a representative of Russia’s Bailiff Service.
According to The Times, Aeroflot – which is 51 percent owned by the state – was in the process of suing Glushkov.
Forensics officers erect a black sheet at the back of a property in New Malden, which has been sealed off
Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was discovered by his family late on Monday night at his suburban home in New Malden, Boris Berezovsky was found dead in England in 2013 and the death of Badri Patarkatsishvili is unexplained
Natalia, who is studying for a Masters degree at the University of Westminster, was ‘traumatised’ by the grisly discovery she made on Monday night, according to The Sun.
Now, it appears she and her older brother Dmitry will be left to pick up the debt left behind by their father.
She previously graduated Moscow State University with qualifications in communications, advertising and PR.
Glushkov’s daughter is understood to have founded a luxury lifestyle gentlemen’s club boutique in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to a listing online.
Her father’s death comes a year after he was jailed in absentia in Russia over allegations he embezzled £87million while in charge of Russian airline Aeroflot.
Glushkov was a businessman in Russia after the fall of Communism and had been a close associate of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was forced to flee Moscow after falling out with Vladimir Putin.
Glushkov was jailed in 2004 over claims of financial impropriety when he was in charge of Russian airline Aeroflot.
He later said he was told at the time that he would be killed on his way to court, saying: ‘I was told the way it would happen. I would be run over by a truck.’
His friend Mr Berezovsky fled to London and they met up again when Glushkov was freed from prison five years later and also came to Britain. He was granted political asylum in 2010.
Mr Berezovsky was himself found dead on a bathroom floor at his home in southern England in 2013 with a scarf around his neck.
A coroner concluded it was impossible to establish whether the oligarch was killed or committed suicide.
Mr Berezovsky’s death is one of 14 which will be reexamined in the wake of the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal nine days ago.
Russian media reported that Glushkov was granted political asylum in Britain in 2010.
Last year, Glushkov appeared on a list published by the Russian Embassy in London of Russians wanted for serious crimes whom the UK had refused to extradite.
It said Russia had sought his extradition in 2015 ‘for committing a number of severe financial offences on the territory of Russia,’ but the British government refused.