The chairman of the board of Russia’s largest private oil company Lukoil has died, with Russian news agencies on Thursday citing sources saying that he had fallen from a hospital window.
A Lukoil statement said Ravil Maganov “passed away after a severe illness” but did not give further details. Some Russian reports suggested that Maganov died by suicide.
Russian news reports said his body was found on the grounds of the Central Clinical Hospital, where Russia’s political and business elite are often treated. He appeared to have fallen from a sixth-storey window, the reports said.
State news agency Tass cited an unnamed law enforcement source as saying Maganov had died by suicide and that he had been admitted to the hospital after a heart attack. The news site RBK also said police were investigating the possibility of suicide.
Lukoil was one of a few Russian companies to publicly call for an end to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, calling in March for the “immediate cessation of the armed conflict.”
Maganov took over as chairman of Lukoil, Russia’s largest private company, two years ago. He is only the latest of several Russian business executives to die under mysterious circumstances this year.
Russian oligarch and former deputy chairman of the gas company Novatek was found dead by hanging in April. At the scene, his wife and daughter were found stabbed to death.
Former Gazprombank vice president Vladislav Avayev was found dead in his Moscow home alongside his wife and daughter in April.
Alexander Subbotin, a former Lukoil manager was found dead in the basement of a shaman’s home in May.
Maganov is also not the first Russian of prominence to die after falling out a window. There have been numerous documented cases of such deaths in the country over the last several years.
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— With files from Global News’ Sarah Do Couto