Another Putin Critic Dies "Suddenly"

 

 

Another Russian who doubted the wisdom of former KGB/ war criminal Putin's invasion of Ukraine has been shot on the street  committed suicide  has fallen out a window  died suddenly over the weekend. Coinkydink?

A senior Russian lawmaker who was reportedly critical of the invasion of Ukraine died over the weekend, the Russian government confirmed, in the latest unexpected fatality of a prominent figure since the war began.

In a statement, Russia’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education confirmed that Deputy Science Minister Pyotr Kucherenko, 46, died on Saturday. The ministry said he “became ill” while on board a plane carrying Russian delegates home after a business trip to Cuba. The flight made an emergency landing in southern Russia but doctors couldn’t save him, the ministry added.  [snip]

Kucherenko’s untimely demise is one of many unexpected, high-profile deaths across Russia since the invasion started last year. Russian military officials, energy executives, and outspoken war critics have all died in mysterious circumstances over the course of the first year of the war. In February, a military bureaucrat who criticized the Kremlin for losses in Ukraine fell 16 floors to her death in St. Petersburg.

Other well-known people including lawmakers have also suffered fatal falls from windows. In December Pavel Antov, a rich politician and businessman in Putin’s party, was found dead in front of his hotel in India—two days after the death of one of his friends on the same trip.

Similar accidents have befallen prominent individuals in Russia’s energy sector too. Ravil Maganov, the chairman of the board of Russia’s second-biggest oil company Lukoil, died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow in September. Another Lukoil executive died in strange circumstances just a few months earlier, while other energy figures have recently been involved in suspicious hangings and murder-suicides.

Being a Putin critic is turning out to be the second leading cause of death for Russians, second only to being a Russian soldier in Ukraine.

(Image:  Some of the suddenly dead Putin critics/ oligarchs, not including Mr. Kucherenko / via The Irish Sun)