2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine/Premature death

 "Accident,  suicide"
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine/Premature death (Mid-level deep event,  Premature deaths,  murder?)

Date	2022 - Present
Location	Europe,  Spain,  India,  France,  Puerto Rico,  US,  UK,  Russia
Perpetrators	Russian Deep state, SDS, Ukraine, CIA?
Deaths	50
Description	Premature deaths of mostly Russian businessman during and around when the Russian invasion commenced. There may be Ukrainian and others as well. As the list grows, it appears the men are being targeted in dozens of western countries as well.

Mysterious, sudden new wave of Russian oligarch deaths - A Current Affair

The defenestration of Russian businessmen may seem tradition to political science majors, but during the "Special Military Operation", a list began to emerge of Russian business executives and their families being killed on a scale perhaps bigger than the infamous Operation 40.

Official Narrative

Who is killing all these persons is not clear. It could be infighting in the Russian Deep State, it could be Putin. Interesting is that Russian Deep State-linked Gazprom had directors die before that start of the 2022 Invasion. Vox notes "there are no satisfying answers to be had, at least for now. Recent history supports the idea that such deaths are something Putin would be fully capable of, but he lacks a clear motive that connects them all."

Background

Since the beginning of 2022, multiple unusual deaths of Russian businesspeople or high officials, sometimes including their family members, have occurred under what some sources suggest were suspicious circumstances. In December 2022, The Atlantic labelled the phenomenon "Sudden Russian Death Syndrome". Dutch Broadcaster NOS named it suspicious as most were not known critics, possibly suggesting non-Russian involvement. Some not listed below were found within hours of each-other as if it was similar to Operation 40. 6 people were found one day within 23 hours.

Strange coincidences

Fired Russian general Vladimir Makarov dies in apparent suicide: report

"Ravil Maganov, chairman of the national oil company Lukoil, fell from window... in the Kremlin's own hospital. CCTV cameras had been "turned off for repairs", Putin was visiting the hospital the same day, and associates didn't think he was suicidal".

Deep State

One of the big targets of this possible assassination ring seems to be Gazprom. Gazprom was noted by ISGP to be a big economic motor for the Russian Deep State.

Explanation

Nothing to see here

Fiona Hill and Mark Galeotti said it is far more likely some really are suicides, and some could be killings by competing influential clans to wipe out competitors without a centralized Kremlin effort (although they accused Putin year in and year out running a Russian mafia state). Interestingly, the link to Russian doctors "falling" out of windows is also mentioned as "incidents", as just another proof of high suicide rates in Russia, although question remained in CCM about the similar suspicious circumstances. As even Wikipedia noted that many important COVID-19 doctors in Russia suddenly also began to fell out of windows. Euronews noted that "all had common close links to the Kremlin, immense wealth, a connection to Russian gas and an anti-war stance on Ukraine."

It's staged, but shhhh

Sergey Protosenya's son, who was not in Spain when his parents and sister were found dead in Lloret de Mar, stated his father was not the perpetrator ("my father is not a murderer"), but that his parents and sister were murdered by someone else.. The Russian newspaper the Insider noted that "relatives found it "unthinkable" that they killed themselves – and in some cases also their wives and children – and have demanded an independent investigation into the mysterious deaths.

Igor Volobuyev, the Ukrainian-born ex-vice-chairman of Gazprombank, who left Russia during the outbreak of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and joined the Freedom of Russia Legion, said in an interview with The Insider that he thought that his former colleague Vladislav Avayev's alleged murder of his family and subsequent suicide had been staged. It was hinted by Avayev's friends that "he knew" perhaps of something that posed a danger.

Russian Deep State cutting off Russian Donors

According to newspaper Novaya Gazeta, some of the deaths may be connected to large scale accounting fraud by Gazprom executives, who may have funnelled money to a network of (family) relatives with ties to the FSB and Russian military. As Gazprom was accused of working for Putin's "mafia state" (even having their own PMC similar to Wagneror what we call the Russian Deep State on this site, this would imply a western entity to be behind this.

NATO

A possible culprit for some of the deaths is the sleeper terror cells that a "NATO spy service" has created in Russia over the last decade.

List

Top Putin war official plunges 160 feet to her death from high-rise building - New York Post

A list with premature deaths of mostly Russian businessman, the actual list is quite longer. But during the war, no media source has been willing to give an explanation yet, hence it being difficult where to draw the line, or what to look for in the list.

A dynamic list from Wikipedia.

A dynamic list from Wikipedia

Rating

8 August 2023 Jun  Defenestration or hit list?
A list of worldwide victims of a targeted killing of Russia-aligned businessman and their families remains unsolved. Who is running this assassination network is not clear, but the professionalism and list cannot be explained by suicide rates.

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