High Profile Russians Who Died in 2023
With a friend like Putin… who needs enemies?
Another year is gone and so are another couple dozen high profile Russians, many of whom died under what one might term odd circumstances. 2023’s macabre harvest of influential Russians was just as diverse as that of 2022, with victims ranging from government officials and oligarchs to journalists and judges. While causes of death were various - “suicide,” “accidental” falling, poising, hit and run, burnt alive, one thing all the victims had in common was their connection with Vladimir Putin. Read on for a chronological listing of these unfortunate souls and the circumstances of their passing.
Magomed Imranovich Abdulaev
January 5, 2023
Abdulaev, age 61, was the former Chairman of the Government of Dagestan (2010-2013) and reportedly a close associate of Putin’s deputy Dmitry Medvedev, also a supporter of the Ukraine war. He was killed after crossing a street in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala outside of the marked pedestrian crossing area. Abdulaev was transported to a local hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. In 2015 Abdulaev was investigated for allegedly embezzling 20 million rubles while leader of Dagestan. The investigation ended in 2017 without a trial. Perhaps this was a case of judge, jury, and executioner all at once.
Dmitry Pavochka
January 26, 2023
Pavochka, age 49, was an influential businessman with high-level government connections. He died when his 16th-floor apartment in Moscow’s “elite district” caught fire. The blaze was contained to his apartment and supposedly caused when Pavochka fell asleep with a lit cigarette. Other residents of the high-rise condo were unharmed. At the time of his death Pavochka headed the Department of International Educational and Scientific Cooperation at the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples in Moscow. Prior to entering the field of education he was an executive at various state-owned industries including Roscosmos (runs the Russian space program, builds and launches rockets), Lukoil (energy firm), Sukhoi (Russian aircraft manufacturer), and Menatep Bank. Pavochka is the third former Lukoil executive to kick-the-bucket under strange circumstances - In 2022 Alexander Subbotin was allegedly poisoned by a Voodoo shaman, and Ravil Maganov committed “suicide” (see my post from last year for further details).
Nikolai Yegorovich Makarov
February 13, 2023
Makarov, age 72, was a former Russian police general tasked with overseeing the crackdown of opposition activists and anti-war protestors. He oversaw the Russian police force’s “anti-extremism” unit and was a main organizer of the hunt for anti-Putin activists and journalists until he was sacked by Putin. Makarov allegedly committed suicide in his suburban Moscow home by shooting himself in the head with an air rifle. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, Putin’s version of the KGB) conducted the investigation; they suggested that Makarov fell into a depression after losing his position.
Marina Yankina
February 16, 2023
Yankina, age 58, was the head of finance for Russia’s Western Military District and played an important role in financing the ongoing war in Ukraine. Yankina’s body was found on the pavement in front of a Saint Petersburg apartment. Investigators say she leapt from a 16th floor balcony, ruling the death a suicide. There were mixed reports with some sources claiming that she called her husband to tell him she was about to jump. Yankina previously worked for Russia’s Federal Tax service and later shifted to military finance, rising to her present position in only five years.
Viatcheslav Rovneiko
February 22, 2023
Rovneiko, age 59, was found unconscious in his home located in an elite gated community outside Moscow. Doctors were unable to save him. No visible signs of violence were present on the body and cause of death is under investigation. Poison? The well-connected Rovneiko was a former KGB spy and co-founder of Urals Energy - one of Russia’s mega-wealthy billionaire oligarchs. He was also co-owner of Belgian petroleum firm Nafta (he also held a Belgian passport). The deceased was secretive to the point that there are no published photos of him on the internet or websites of firms that he owned. He was also reportedly a close associate of Sergei Naryshkin with whom he served as a KGB spy out of the Soviet embassy in Belgium in the 1980s. Naryshkin currently heads Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
Igor Shkurko
April 4, 2023
Shkurko, age 49, was found dead in his Yakutsk prison cell with no reported signs of violence on his body. Authorities ruled the death a suicide. Russian authorities have not provided any additional details regarding the incident. Prior to his arrest Shkurko was the Deputy General Director of Russian energy company Yakutskenergo. The state-owned company provides energy to some of the coldest human inhabited areas of the planet. Shkurko had been accused of demanding a $6,000 bribe and just filed an appeal claiming the allegations were unfounded. The deceased was a member of Putin’s United Russia political party; however, party membership was revoked when the allegations came to light.
Pyotr Kucherenko
May 20, 2023
Kucherenko, age 46, was State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation at the time of his death. He reportedly fell ill (yet another case of poisoning…?) on a flight from Cuba to Russia and made an emergency landing in southern Russia. A team of doctors rushed to the plane but were unable to save him. Roman Super, a Russian journalist, said he spoke with the victim a few days before he left on the official trip to Cuba. According to Super, they discussed his plans to leave the country while Kucherenko lamented the fact that he could not flee and expressed his opposition to the Ukraine invasion and “fascist” Putin regime.
You cannot imagine the degree of brutality of our country. In a year you won’t recognize Russia at all. You leave and do the right thing… They take away our passports. And there is no place on the globe that will now be happy to take the Deputy Russian Minister after this fascist invasion… We are all held hostage. Nobody can make a sound. They will immediately crush you like a bug. Leave quickly, Roma. Save you and yours.
Pyotr Kucherenko to Roman Super
Artyom Bartenev
June 8, 2023
Bartenev, age 42, served as a Russian Federation Federal Judge in the Kirovsky District Court of Kazan. Bartenev reportedly fell to his death from the window of his 12th floor apartment. The incident is under investigation. The morning of his death the deceased was supposed to start a new trial. He previously headed the Department for the Restoration of Citizens’ Rights in the Office of the Commissioner for Rights of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Grigory Klinishov
June 8, 2023
Klinishov, age 92, was found dead in his apartment by his daughter. He was hanging in a noose; a suicide note was found at the scene in which the deceased said goodbye to his family. Klinishov was a Russian physicist and helped build the RDS-37 two-stage hydrogen bomb. The death was ruled a suicide.
Kristina Baikova
June 24, 2023
Baikova, age 28, a glamorous and popular bank executive allegedly fell to her death at 3:00 am from her upscale 11th floor Moscow apartment. At the time of her death, she was the vice president in charge of corporate clients at Loko-Bank. Loko-Bank is a commercial bank located in Moscow. Previously Ms. Baikova worked for Moscow Credit Bank. A male “friend” identified only as Andrei was with her when she died. He told authorities that they had a few drinks, then she went to the balcony and accidentally fell out an open window upon which he immediately called the police. The death has been ruled an accident. Crime of passion?
Andrei Fomin
July 1, 2023
Fomin, age 57, drowned after falling ill while swimming in the Volga River. From 2016-2017 Fomin served as the Russian State prosecutor of the illegally annexed Republic of Crimea. In 2020 he was appointed State Prosecutor of Chuvashia. The drowning occurred during an annual city-held event to swim across the river. He made it 2,200 meters but foundered and was rescued 150 meters short of the opposite shore. Rescuers were unable to resuscitate him. The death was ruled an accident.
Aleksey Avramenko
July 4, 2023
Avramenko, age 47, was the Belarus Minister of Transportation and Communication at the time of his demise. He was a close associate of Putin’s puppet dictator in Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. The victim reportedly “died suddenly” with no cause of death indicated in official reports. Avramenko personally handled the May 23, 2021, hijacking of Ryanair flight FR4978 with service from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania. Belarusian opposition journalist Roman Protasevich was on the flight which, once it entered Belarusian airspace, was illegally forced to land in Minsk via a fake bomb threat passed on by air traffic control. Protasevich, who had been tried and convicted in absentia, was arrested, and jailed in a move widely criticized in the West.
Alexander Nikolayev
July 6, 2023
Nikolayev, age 72, an executive at the Russian state-owned Rosatom, which manages nuclear energy in the country, was severely beaten in the street by unknown assailants. The victim’s family claimed that his body was “covered in blood, hematomas, and bruises,” and he was unable to breathe without a ventilator after the violent attack. He passed away from his injuries despite receiving treatment in one of Moscow’s most elite hospitals. The family accused Russian police of failing to properly investigate the assault and have hired a human rights expert to investigate his death. Prior to his career in atomic energy Nikolayev was a career Russian diplomat during which time he served as Consul General in Simferopol, the capital city of Crimea (2003-2008), prior to its annexation by Putin in 2014.
Natalia Bochkareva
July 14, 2023
Bochkarevka, age 44, was found dead in her Moscow apartment after the building concierge noticed that she was not answering her door. Prior to her death she reportedly told friends that she felt “unwell.” Poison - again? According to authorities there were no signs of foul play, and the death is under investigation. Bochkarevka, a well-connected Moscow socialite, made big news in the country a couple of years ago (and became a subject of ridicule) when she was scammed by a fortune teller whom she paid around $150,000 to remove a curse. She was the daughter of one of Putin’s cronies, Vasily Bochkarev, who ruled the Penza region from 1998 to 2015. Mr. Bochkaraev reportedly succumbed to lung cancer one year after leaving office. The victim in this case was the heiress of the family’s business ventures - lumber mills and chain of bakeries.
Anton Cherepennikov
July 22, 2023
Cherepennikov, age 40, was found dead in his Moscow office. Official cause of death - sudden cardiac arrest. The deceased millionaire surely had many enemies as he was the founder of the firm Citadel and ICS Holdings - which specialize in creating hacking software. Russian hackers use his company’s products to steal personal and financial information. He allegedly had close ties with the FSB. Oh, and one more thing - his companies also specialize in digital wiretapping equipment and telecommunications monitoring technology. He was among those sanctioned by the U.S. and other countries after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Gennady Lopyrev
August 16, 2023
Lopyrev, age 69, was charged with bribery, illegal possession of ammunition, and convicted by a military court in 2017. Charges which he denied. Lopyrev was about to come up for parole when he died suddenly with no prior health problems (he practiced gymnastics in jail), leading to suspicions that he was - you guessed it, poisoned. The official word is that the victim had previously undiagnosed leukemia. Lopyrev was a high-ranking Federal Protective Service (FSO) officer and in charge of security at some of Putin’s personal residences. He also oversaw the financing and construction of Putin’s posh $1.3 billion clifftop Gelendzhik Palace on the Black Sea. Up to the time of his incarceration, he was one of Putin’s top security aides and frequently seen at his side and at meetings with foreign leaders.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
August 23, 2023
Yevgeny Prigozhin is one of the most colorful and interesting of Putin’s alleged 2023 victims. Prigozhin (age 62) and Putin are both from Saint Petersburg and supposedly go way back. Most recently Prigozhin ran the Russian mercenary group PMC Wagner whose bloody exploits are well known in Ukraine, Syria, and several African countries. Prigozhin’s thuggish nature goes way back; during Soviet rule he ran the streets and was convicted as a minor for theft. Later, he was arrested for assault and robbery and sentenced to twelve years’ hard labor. He served nearly a decade before he was released and became a street vendor. After the fall of communism, he worked his way into the grocery store and restaurant businesses, eventually opening several high-end eateries in the Saint Petersburg and Moscow areas. He caught the attention of Putin, who was a frequent customer, and the two hit it off. Putin was reportedly impressed with the self-made Prigozhin and rewarded his businesses with lucrative government contracts. Prigozhin personally served Putin and his guests, including world leaders, at his restaurants. Later Prigozhin, presumably with the blessing of Putin, established the infamous mercenary group that has become synonymous with murderous deeds.
Prigozhin rose to international notoriety after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine where his fighters played a key role in the capture of Bakhmut (losing several thousand men in the process). He was wanted by international police organizations, including the FBI who offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his capture. Prigozhin had a falling out with Putin and the Russian Ministry of Defense after publicly criticizing the government for incompetence in their prosecution of the war and inadequately supplying PMC Wagner frontline troops in Ukraine with ammunition and equipment. When his demands were not met, Prigozhin led an attempted coup against Putin’s government on June 23, 2023. PMC Wagner mercenaries took Rostov on the Don without a fight and proceeded north along the main M4 Highway toward Moscow with 5,000 men, armor, artillery, and air defense support. During their march the mercenaries killed and injured dozens of Russian servicemen and shot down several helicopters and an aerial command-center plane. A last-minute deal brokered by the Belarussian dictator Lukashenko ended the coup. PMC Wagner troops were transferred out of Ukraine and Russia to bases in Belarus. Putin and Prigozhin supposedly had a rapprochement after the incident however on August 23, 2023, exactly two months after the uprising, Prigozhin and several of his mercenary associates were killed in a plane crash. Russian authorities officially listed the cause of the crash, a routine flight from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, as an accident. PMC Wagner members believe it was shot down by Russian air defenses. U.S. and NATO intelligence services, however, believe a bomb hidden on board detonated mid-flight destroying the aircraft. Whether by missile or bomb, Prigozhin is no more, and Putin sent a clear message to other cronies who may have thoughts of betrayal.
Dmitry Utkin
August 23, 2023
Utkin, a career soldier and cofounder of PMC Wagner, met his demise at the ripe old age age of 53 in the same plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin. He served in the Russian military as a special forces officer for twenty years, retiring in 2013 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. During his tenure he commanded Russia's elite 2nd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade. Utkin, like many other PMC Wagner members, reportedly was a neo-Nazi complete with the shaved head and tattoos of the Nazi eagle with swastika and lightning bolt SS symbols (which he also is said to have used as a personal signature). He used the call sign “Wagner” in honor of the German composer by the same name (also a Nazi favorite) and greeted his troops with “Heil!” Utkin led mercenary troops in Syria and Ukraine and was decorated on four occasions by Putin with the Order of Courage (roughly equivalent to a bronze or silver star in the U.S. armed forces).
Valery Chekalov
August 23, 2023
With the Prigozhin plane crash Putin managed to kill more than one bird with a single stone, as the saying goes. Not only did he cut off the snake’s head (Prigozhin) along with his top commander on the ground (Utkin), but he also bagged Chekalov, head of PMC Wagner global logistics. At age 47 Russian navy veteran Chekalov was the youngest member of PMC Wagner’s top brass; Chekalov managed several of Prigozhin’s business enterprises. Aside from this and international arms dealing, Chekalov had the critical task of keeping Wagner mercenaries in the field supplied and paid.
Vladimir Nekrasov
October 1, 2023
Nekrasov, age 66, took the reins of the Russian energy giant Lukoil in 2022. A self-made man, Nekrasov over the span of a fifty-year career in the firm worked his way up from repairman to chairman. He reportedly died suddenly of acute heart failure. Interestingly, Nekrasov’s predecessor, Ravil Maganov, “fell” to his death from a window of the Central Clinical Hospital of the Presidential Administration. For success in business Putin awarded Nekrasov the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree, and the Order of Honor. He was also the recipient of other state awards.
Vladimir Georgyevich Sviridov
November 15, 2023
General Sviridov, age 68, was a former Russian Federation Air Force officer and commander of the 6th Air Force and Air Defense Army. He was sacked in 2009 over his repeated criticisms of higher command and his very vocal claims that Russian military pilots received inadequate training. In a 2007 interview with the Russian magazine Take Off Sviridov stated that "A pilot must have about 100 hours of flight time per year for full combat readiness. However, this is not yet the case. The average flight time in the army is currently 25-30 hours." The general’s prophetic comments regarding lack of proper combat readiness among Russia’s air forces has come back to haunt Russian brass, as losses of military pilots and aircraft mount and Ukrainian skies are still contested two years into a fight that was supposed to last three days. Sviridov and his wife were found dead. The suspected cause of death was listed as carbon monoxide poisoning, however local gas specialists, after taking measurements, did not find any excess carbon monoxide in the room.
Anna Tsavera
December 11, 2023
Tsavera, age 35, was the late editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of Russia’s oldest and most popular publications. Also, one of Putin’s favorites. The victim’s father found her dead in her bed in her Moscow apartment a day after she complained of not feeling well. Poison? Her predecessor, Vladimir Sungorkin, died suddenly a year prior at age 68 from “asphyxiation” while on a business trip in Russia’s far east.
Evgeny Postrigan
December 17, 2023
Postrigan, age 50, was the chief accountant at Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems, a Russian firm with close connections to the military. His wife reportedly found him dead in the garage of their home in Zheleznogorsk, Siberia. Authorities list the cause of death as “asphyxiation.” Friends and family of the deceased describe him as a “nice guy” who “knew a lot of state secrets.” Reshetnev supports the Russian military campaign in Ukraine with space-based assets used for reconnaissance and dissemination of Russian propaganda. The U.S. and other nations sanctioned the firm after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Vladimir Egorov
December 27, 2023
Egorov, age 46, was a member of Putin’s ruling United Russia party and local politician in the Tobolsk region. He was found dead in the courtyard of his home where it is presumed that he “fell” to his death from an open third story window. Authorities reported that there were “no external signs of criminal death” on Egorov’s corpse and that they “could not confirm the information about the circumstances of the deputy’s death” as autopsy results are pending. Egorov, who was also involved in Russian state oil business, was forced out of city administration in 2016 after an alleged corruption scandal but returned to politics in 2020.
While this concludes the macabre list of unfortunate high-profile Russians who passed away last year, 2024 looks to be just as dangerous. On January 2, Zoya Konovalova, the 48 year old editor-in-chief of the state television and radio broadcasting company Kuban was found dead alongside her husband in a suspected poisoning incident. She was one of Putin’s top propagandists.