Former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), Anatoly Gerashchenko (73), died Tuesday after what the institute says is an accident.
An anonymous source victory for the Russian newspaper Izvestia that Gerashchenko fell from a great height and fell from several steps. Doctors must have pronounced him dead on the spot.
A commission must be set up to investigate the death. The death has been widely reported in the Russian media in the past 24 hours.
Defense band
Gerashchenko has been working for the institute since 1977 and recently served as an advisor to the current head of the MAI.
The Russian Defense Ministry has strong ties to the institute, which Gerashchenko headed between 2007 and 2015.
Gerashchenko has received numerous state awards for his work, including the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, one of the highest medals.
Several deaths
Several Russian senior officials and businessmen have died in the past year.
Gerashchenko’s death comes two weeks after a senior Russian Overseas Development Company executive, Ivan pecorin, he died after falling from a flight of stairs into a boat.
The president of the largest Russian oil company also died in early September Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, in unclear circumstances.
According to the Russian newspaper RBC, Maganov must have fallen from the sixth floor of the central hospital in Moscow. He must have died instantly.
In March, Lukoil’s council issued a statement calling for an end to the war in Ukraine.
“We hereby express our deepest concern for the tragic events in Ukraine. We demand an end to the armed conflict in the blink of an eye and express our sincere condolences to all victims,” the statement read.
Five oligarchs have died
Over the past six months, several Russian oligarchs have been found dead under unclear circumstances.
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Yuri Voronov
- The Russian multimillionaire was found dead in his St. Petersburg home in July of this year. He was found in his swimming pool, shot in the head, writes the British newspaper The Times.
- Voronov, head of Astra Shipping, a transport company that has partnered with Gazprom
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Aleksandr Tjulakov
- He was found dead in his garage on February 25, 2022. The cause of death is said to have been a suicide, writes Novaya Gazeta.
- He was director of Gazprom.
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Michele Watford
- Found dead at his home in Surrey, England. According to the Daily Mail, the 66-year-old was found by an employee. Police, according to the Guardian, said the death was not considered suspicious.
- He was a Russian billionaire of Ukrainian origin.
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Vasily Melnikov
- He was found dead on March 23 with his family in Nizhny Novgorod, which is east of Moscow. He, his wife and children were found stabbed. According to investigators, there were no signs of a burglary in the apartment
- Melnikov owned the MedStrom company, which supplies medical equipment.
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Vladislav Avajev
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He was found dead with his wife and daughter in their Moscow apartment on April 18 this year. They were all found with gunshot wounds. According to the state news agency Tass, it is about murder and suicide.
- Previously he was vice president of Gazprombrank
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Sergej Protosenja
- He was found dead in the garden outside the family’s vacation home in Lloret del Mar in Catalonia. His wife and daughter were found dead inside the house.
- Former Vice President and Accounting Manager of Novatek
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Many were found dead along with their families. Many of them are linked to the Russian gas company Gazprom.
Government authorities have in several cases concluded that the deaths were suicides, but the former Gazprombank vice president questioned this.
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