Since the invasion of Ukraine five oligarch's have committed "suicide" and one committed suicide in January. Several of them are alleged to have killed their wives and children before taking their own lives.
Newsweek's Giulia Carbonaro has the story. I'll just excerpt a few lines about each case from her more detailed account.
Two Russian oligarchs were found dead this week alongside their family in luxurious homes in Russia and Spain, with the two cases discovered within 24 hours of each other.It's possible, of course, that all these men, overcome with despair, killed themselves and, in several cases, their wives and children, within a couple months of each other. Perhaps suicide in Russia is contagious. Then again, given Mr. Putin's brutal history with domestic critics, perhaps there are other explanations for this sudden rash of deaths.
Both deaths are believed by police to be cases of murder-suicide, but the evidence supporting these theories is muddled by the fact that the events happened so close together, with the two oligarchs the last of several who have been found to have died by suicide since the beginning of the year.
Here's a list of all the Russian oligarch who have been found dead in mysterious circumstance since January.
Sergey Protosenya
The body of Sergey Protosenya, former top manager of Russia's energy giant Novatek, was found together with those of his wife and daughter on Tuesday in a rented villa in Spain, where the family was reportedly on holiday for Easter.
The 55-year-old millionaire was found hanged in the garden of the villa in Lloret de Mar by Catalonian police, Spanish media reported, while his wife and daughter were found in their beds with stab wounds in their bodies.
Vladislav Avaev
Just a day before the body of Protosenya was found in Spain, on April 18, former vice-president of Gazprombank Vladislav Avaev was found dead in his multi-million apartment on Universitetsky Prospekt in Moscow, together with his wife and daughter.
The apartment was locked from the inside and a pistol was found in Avaev's hands, leading investigators to explore the theory that Avaev shot his wife and his 13-year-old daughter before killing himself.
Vasily Melnikov
According to police investigations mentioned by Kommersant, Melnikov—who reportedly worked for the medical firm MedStom—was found dead in March in the apartment together with his wife Galina and two sons. They had all died from stab wounds and the knives used for the murders were found at the crime scene.
Kommersant reported that investigators concluded that Melnikov killed his 41-year-old wife and 10-year-old and 4-year-old children before killing himself, but neighbors and relatives struggle to believe this theory. According to the Ukrainian media outlet Glavred, Melnikov's company was suffering huge losses because of Western sanctions.
Mikhail Watford
Ukrainian-born Russian tycoon Mikhail Watford was found dead in his home in Surrey in the U.K. on February 28th.
Watford—who had changed his name from the original Tolstosheya—was ... found hanged in the garage of his home by a gardener, according to The Daily Mail.
Alexander Tyulyakov
On February 25, Gazprom's Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center (UCC) for Corporate Security, Alexander Tyulyakov, was found dead in a cottage near St. Petersburg, as reported by the Russian newspaper Gazeta.
Tyulyakov's body was reportedly found hanged in the apartment's garage. Police found a note next to his body that led investigators to believe the oligarch had died by suicide. Leonid Shulman
The first death linked to Russian energy giant Gazprom dates back to before the Russian invasion of Ukraine had even started, in January.
At that time, 60-year-old Gazprom's top manager Leonid Shulman was found dead in the bathroom of a cottage in the Leningrad region, next to a note that led police to believe he died by suicide, according to Gazeta and Russian media group RBC.
