SCORES OF HIGH-FLYING RUSSIANS CONNECTED TO VLADIMIR PUTIN’S REGIME HAVE DIED IN MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
When Pyotr Kucherenko boarded his flight from Cuba back to his native Russia following a business trip in May 2023, the 46 year old appeared in rude health. But en route home from Havana to Moscow, the father of one suddenly fell ill and the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the town of Mineralyne Vody, in the southwest of Russia. Medics rushed onto the runway, but despite performing CPR on Kucherenko on the aircraft, they were too late to save his life.
Russia’s deputy science minister, Kucherenko was a relatively young man. The official explanation for his abrupt demise was an underlying heart condition, but suspicions were raised when it emerged the politician had privately bemoaned Russia’s “fascist invasion” of Ukraine and was desperate to flee the country. After more than 30 unexplained deaths of leading Russian officials and industrialists since Putin’s illegal decision to invade Ukrainian territory in early 2022, many questioned whether Kucherenko really did die of natural causes.
According to a journalist who was a close friend, the minister had confided in him that he was worried about the war. “In a year, you won’t recognise Russia at all,” he reportedly said. “You leave and do the right thing. It is no longer possible [for me] to do so. They take away our passports. And there is not a world in which the deputy minister will be happy after this fascist invasion. I take antidepressants and tranquillisers at the same time, handfuls, and it doesn’t help much. Nobody can say anything. [They are] crushed like aphids.”
The list of high-profile Russians connected to industry, politics, the military, and the media who have lost their lives since the war began has become so long, the grisly phenomenon has been dubbed “Sudden Russian Death Syndrome”. In many of the cases, the authorities have tried to dismiss the fatalities as deaths from natural causes, but Putin critics insist the President is brazenly purging anyone in the country who displeases him.
OIL AND DEATH
Just five days after Russian tanks rolled over the border into Ukraine in February 2022, Alexander Tyulakov was found dead in the garage of his home in St Petersburg. The 61 year old was a senior executive with Gazprom, Russia’s multi-billion, state-owned gas giant, and according to the media, Tyulakov had allegedly taken his own life and left a suicide note. What raised eyebrows about the death, however, was Gazprom’s and law enforcement’s failure to release any public statements concerning the purported suicide. No one has seen the note, while men claiming to be Gazprom security services cordoned off the scene, rather than the local police.
Another Gazprom employee to suffer an untimely and strange demise since the
