Moscow Times: Another top commodity manager died in Russia under mysterious circumstances
In general, over 15 months, under unclear circumstances, about 40 top managers, businessmen, and other Russian managers died.
The first deputy general director and chief engineer of Yakutskenergo, Igor Shkurko, was found dead in a pre-trial detention center in Yakutsk, a Komsomolskaya Pravda source said. The court sent the top manager to a pre-trial detention center on March 31, the day after his arrest in the bribery case.
The Federal Penitentiary Service for Yakutia claims that Shkurko committed suicide. According to the department, this happened on April 4. “The defendant was found in the cell of the pre-trial detention center with no signs of life. Arriving medical workers ascertained his death. An investigative team was called to the scene. According to preliminary data, no signs of criminal death were found,” the press release says.
It is noteworthy that Shurko did not agree with the arrest and appealed against it right before his death, on April 3. The Investigative Committee declined to comment on the incident. Yakutskenergo ignored official requests from the media.
The 49-year-old Shkurko was responsible for the technical management of the company. PJSC Yakutskenergo is owned by RusHydro and operates throughout the country. The late top manager is survived by his wife and two sons. Prior to his appointment at Yakutskenergo, Shkurko worked as the general director of OAO South Yakutsk Electric Networks. He was a deputy of the Aldan District Council from United Russia. After his detention, the party suspended his membership.
A wave of mysterious deaths of top managers of the Russian energy industry began in 2022. In January, in the elite village of Leninsky near St. Petersburg, the 60-year-old head of the Gazprom Invest transport service, Leonid Shulman, was found dead. Nearby was a note in which he complained of pain in his broken leg.
In March, the body of Alexander Tyulyakov, Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center of Gazprom for Corporate Security, was found in the Leningrad Region. He also left a suicide note, the contents of which were not made public.
In April, Vice President of Gazprombank Vladislav Avaev, his pregnant wife, and 13-year-old daughter were found dead in a Moscow apartment. According to investigators, Avaev shot family members and then committed suicide.
Then, in a villa in Spain, the former Novatek top manager Sergei Protosenya was found hanged. His wife and 18-year-old daughter were also found stabbed to death in the house. An acquaintance of the businessman called them "an exemplary family."
In May, the former top manager of Lukoil, Alexander Subbotin, died in Mytishchi after a session with local shamans. The media wrote that they tried to cure him of a hangover with toad venom, but the session ended in death.
In July, the body of 61-year-old Yuri Voronov, the general director of the transport company Astra Shipping, which also worked on Gazprom's arctic contracts, was found in the elite cottage village of Morskie Terrasy near the Gulf of Finland. He died from a gunshot to the head.
On September 1, Lukoil Vice President Ravil Maganov fell out of the window of the Central Clinical Hospital of the Presidential Administration in Moscow. The body of a 68-year-old top manager who has worked at Lukoil since the company was founded in 1993 was discovered by the medical staff.
In January 2023, ex-manager Dmitry Pavochka was burned alive in his own apartment. At various times, he was involved in projects at Sukhoi AHC, Menatep Bank, Lukoil, Rusdragmet, and Roskosmos. The investigation believes that Pavochka fell asleep in bed with a cigarette not extinguished.
In February, the founder of Urals Energy, the former partner of Boris Yeltsin's son-in-law Vyacheslav Rovneiko, died suddenly in a house near Moscow on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. “I was sitting drinking tea, and suddenly it was bad with him. Fell off the chair and that's it," his mother said.
In addition to high-ranking executives of companies associated with the oil and gas industry, other managers appeared in reports of suicides and accidents. For example, in September, Ivan Pechorin, Director for the Aviation Industry of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, fell overboard a boat.
In the same month, Pavel Pchelnikov, Director of Communications of the subsidiary of Russian Railways, Digital Logistics LLC, died. According to investigators, he shot himself at his home in Moscow.
In February, under the windows of a house in St. Petersburg, Marina Yankina, head of the financial department of the Ministry of Defense for the Western Military District, was found dead. Her belongings and documents were found on the common balcony of the 16th floor. Previously, Yankina worked at the Federal Tax Service and served as Deputy Chairman of the Property Relations Committee of St. Petersburg.
In general, over 15 months, under unclear circumstances, about 40 top managers, businessmen, and other Russian managers died.