Mysterious deaths among Russian energy elites continue
Mikhail Rogachov, a former vice president of corporate governance at the Yukos oil company, was found dead on the pavement outside his home. According to local media reports, he fell from a window.
The pro-Kremlin channel Mash on Telegram reported that Rogachov was suffering from an advanced stage of cancer. Mash claims he left a farewell note and, according to investigators, took his own life.
However, the independent channel VChK-OGPU writes on Telegram that sources "close to Rogachov" categorically denied the cancer diagnosis. The deceased’s relatives informed the channel that he had breakfast with his family, appeared in good spirits, and showed no signs of suicidal intentions.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian opposition channel Nexta, writing about Rogachov's death, used quotation marks around the purported cause of death, suggesting he fell from a window.
Not the first such case
As noted by the Lenta portal, since 2022, several managers of major Russian energy companies have died under unusual circumstances. In January 2022, the head of transportation for Gazprom Invest, Leonid Shulman, allegedly took his own life. In March, Aleksandr Tyulakov, the general director of the Unified Settlement Centre for Corporate Security (responsible for Gazprom's finances), was also reported to have died by suicide.
Vladislav Avayev, a former vice-president of Gazprombank, died in April 2022 along with his wife and daughter in an apparent murder-suicide. Sergey Protosenya, a former chief accountant of the gas company Novatek, also died with his wife and daughter. Their bodies were found in their Spanish home in Lloret de Mar. In May, former Lukoil director and billionaire Aleksandr Subbotin died suddenly. His death was attributed to acute heart failure, allegedly preceded by shamanic rituals.
In July 2022, near St. Petersburg, the body of Yuri Voronov, who ran the transport company Astra Shipping, which had dealings with Gazprom, was discovered. In September, the vice president of the Lukoil oil company, Ravil Maganov, reportedly fell from the sixth floor of a hospital in Moscow. The following autumn, the chairman of the board of the Russian oil company Lukoil, Vladimir Nekrasov, died unexpectedly from acute heart failure.
Independent media calculate that Nekrasov was the 17th high-level manager to die in Russia since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, including the 10th from fuel and energy company boards.
This fate is not limited to those in the energy sector. In June 2023, Kristina Baikova, a 28-year-old vice-president of Russia’s Loko-Bank, reportedly fell from a window, followed by economist Valentina Bondarenko in July 2024.
The Yukos company was founded in 1993 with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now an opposition figure living in London, as a co-founder. In the early 21st century, Yukos was the largest oil company in Russia. The company collapsed in 2007, partly due to accusations of significant tax evasion.
