Russian media say a man knocked down and killed in Surrey is Dmitry Obretetsky, a 49-year-old tycoon
A Russian billionaire has died after he was knocked down by a car while out walking his dog near his Surrey home – as a friend said he could have been the victim of a targeted hit.
Surrey Police have confirmed only that a man in his 40s was knocked down in Oxshott and later died – but Russian media last night named him as Dmitry Obretetsky, a 49-year-old tycoon.
Obretetsky’s friend Pavel Borovkov today questioned whether he was deliberately killed, telling Russian news outlet Life: ‘You know, people drive cars very carefully in (Britain)… I don’t exclude that he was specially knocked down.’
Three cars were involved in the crash which led to Obretetsky’s death. Their drivers are believed to have been questioned at the scene and no one has been arrested. However, police say the investigation is ongoing and are appealing for information.
It is the latest in a series of mysterious deaths of prominent Russians in the area, after Badri Patarkatsishvili died at an estate near Leatherhead in 2008, Alexander Peripilichnyy died near Weybridge in 2012 and Boris Berezovsky died near Ascot in 2013.
Unlike those figures, Obretetsky is not known to have expressed any opposition to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and experts on the region say oligarchs who become incredibly wealthy in Putin’s Russia often have the leader’s tacit consent.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich also has property near Oxshott. It is not known whether the two were friends, but Mr Obretetsky’s son Ilya has been pictured in Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge changing rooms.
Obretetsky became an iconic hero with football fans in his homeland during Euro 2008 when he was pictured among a sea of Dutch fans waving a Russian tricolour flag
Obretetsky, a football fan who divided his time between the UK and Russia, is pictured with his son Ilya, who is now 22, at the Brazil World Cup in 2014
The small corner of London’s commuter belt has seen a number of mysterious deaths of prominent Russians in recent years
The death also comes at a time of heightened tensions between the West and Russia after Germany expelled two Russian diplomats over the murder of Georgian Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.
German prosecutors say there is sufficient evidence to suggest that either the Russian government or authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya ordered the hit.
The three drivers involved in the incident in Surrey last week are understood to have stopped at the scene, but detectives have appealed for information and dashcam footage of the incident.
A police spokesman said: ‘We are continuing to investigate the circumstances around the collision.’
The man’s dog was also killed in the road crash. Obretetsky’s dog is said to be called Oscar.
Obretetsky made his fortune in Volgograd after the fall of the Soviet Union before moving to Britain with his wife and children.
He founded a household chemicals retail company and was owner of Magnat Trade Enterprise, official distributor for Mars, Nestle, Procter & Gamble in Russia.
This is the road in Oxshott, Surrey where the crash involving three cars happened
Mr Obretetsky, pictured with his dog. His friend Pavel Borovkov (right) has spoken to Russian media questioning whether Mr Obretetsky might have been deliberately targeted
Mr Obretetsky is survived by his wife, son and two daughters Evelina (left) and Tatiana (right), who are active on social media
Obretetsky became an iconic hero with football fans in his homeland during Euro 2008 when he was pictured among a sea of Dutch fans waving a Russian tricolour flag in a quarter final game when Russia beat Holland 3-1.
Obretetsky’s consulting company LLC Advant said: ‘We know very little about what happened. Of course, this is a great loss and tragedy for all of us.’
Obretetsky in Russia during last year’s World Cup. He lived in England but regularly returned to his homeland for business
His friend Mr Borovkov said that Obretetsky had created ‘one of the most civilised and European-like companies in our country’.
‘Dmitry was a man of diverse interests, he did not focus only on business.
‘We remember how at the famous quarter-final of the Euro 2008 football tournament he proudly, completely alone in a crowd of Dutch fans, held a large Russian flag with the inscription ‘Volgograd’.
‘He loved contemporary music – hard rock, was a fan of Ozzy Osbourne.’
He was ‘a wonderful friend and colleague, an understanding and friendly person’.
Despite living in Britain – close to several Chelsea stars, according to reports in Moscow – he often visited his homeland.
There had been criticisms of him for his employment methods and a report by Life said: ‘After his death, this business empire risks collapsing miserably, leaving thousands of ordinary residents of Volgograd unemployed.’
Obretetsky was married and his son Ilya, now believed to be 22, had attended Millfield School and is a UK citizen. He also had two daughters at school in England.
It comes after Boris Berezovsky (left) was found dead in his nearby Berkshire bathroom with a ligature round his neck in March 2013 and Alexander Perepilichnyy (right), the Russian financier who dropped dead while out jogging in Weybridge, Surrey, in 2012
Germany yesterday expelled Russian diplomats over the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili
A Surrey Police spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that a man has sadly died following a collision in Warren Lane, Oxshott last week.
‘The collision took place at around 4.45pm on Monday 25 November. It involved three vehicles and a pedestrian, who was walking a dog at the time. The dog died at the scene.
‘The pedestrian, a man in his 40s, was taken to hospital by ambulance with serious injuries, but sadly died on Saturday (30 November).
‘The man’s next of kin have been informed. We are continuing to investigate the circumstances around the collision.
‘Anyone with information which could assist with our enquiries, or has dashcam footage, is asked to contact us on 101, quoting incident reference PR/P19274056.’
The curious cases of Russians dying or being attacked in Britain
Suspicions over the deaths of Russians in Britain came about after ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210
2006 – Ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London in 2006, a killing which a judge later said was probably approved by President Vladimir Putin.
The defector died after two agents slipped radioactive polonium 210 into his tea pot at a Mayfair hotel in central London.
The 43-year-old had been an officer with the Federal Security Service (FSB), but he fled to Britain where he became a fierce critic of the Kremlin. He died after an agonising six-day battle in hospital.
An inquiry found two Russian men – Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun – had deliberately poisoned Litvinenko by putting polonium-210 into his drink at a London hotel.
2008 – Badri Patarkatsishvili, a businessman and politician, was found dead at the Surrey mansion he owned.
Police, who initially described the death as ‘suspicious’, tested for radiation poisoning, but no traces were found. The case was closed.
Shortly before his death, the 52-year-old had spoken of an assassination plot, claiming that a hit squad of four Georgians had been sent by the Kremlin to London ‘to do something against me’, while secret tapes of a conversation between a Russian official and a Chechen hitman emerged in which they discussed how to make him ‘disappear completely’.
According to BuzzFeed, American authorities believes he was poisoned, triggering a cardiac arrest — a favourite Russian means of assassination.
2012 – Alexander Perepilichnyy, a key witness in a £140million tax fraud investigation, collapsed while jogging outside his £3million mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, in November 2012.
The Russian had ingested gelsemium – a very rare toxic plant found only in China, a coroner heard, although this was later questioned.
Tests carried out by leading botanist Professor Monique Simmonds of Kew Gardens found a chemical in Mr Perepilichnyy’s stomach that could come only from a variety of gelsemium – a known method of assassination by Chinese and Russian contract killers.
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
2012 – German Gorbuntsov survived despite being shot several times with a sub-machine gun on the Isle of Dogs in East London.
The Russian banker allegedly had evidence relevant to the attempted murder of Russian billionaire Alexander Antonov.
2013 – Boris Berezovsky, was found dead in his in Berkshire bathroom with a ligature round his neck in March 2013.
His friends in the secret service say he planned to give Putin evidence of a plot involving oligarchs to topple the strongman in a coup.
A coroner recorded an open verdict saying he either took his own life or he was killed and the scene was staged to look self-inflicted.
2018 – Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed in Salisbury on March 4, 2018 after being poisoned with nerve agent Novichok.
The Skripals lived to survive, but another woman who was contaminated, Dawn Sturgess, died after she sprayed herself with what she thought was perfume.
Eight days after the attack, Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that two Russian spies had smuggled Novichok into the country to target the former spy Skripal.
2018 – Former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolay Glushkov was found apparently strangled in his home in New Malden, south-west London, a week after the Novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.
The body of the 68-year-old Russian businessman, a close friend of Vladimir Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, was discovered by his daughter on March 12 last year.
His daughter Natalia said she found his body in a ‘trashy set-up of a suicide’. Speaking earlier this year, she said: ‘Not knowing how or why he was killed or who did it makes this even harder.’