A Russian politician has been found dead in his courtyard, local media has reported. This latest death adds to the burgeoning list of elites to have died in bizarre circumstances in recent months.
Vladimir Egorov, was a Tobolsk City Duma Deputy from Putin’s United Russia party. He was 46 at the time of his death. The news broke in the Russian newspaper Kommersant and claimed that there were no “external signs of criminal death” on his body. The paper added that investigators “could not confirm the information about the circumstances of the deputy’s death”, claiming they are “still conducting an autopsy”.
Meanwhile, Russian state media TASS said on Thursday that Mr Egorov “was found dead in Tobolsk”, citing the press service of the Investigative Committee for the Tyumen Region, just as Kommersant had. CNN reported that an unofficial Telegram channel called Baza, which is associated with Russian security services, said Egorov’s body “was discovered in the courtyard of his house on Kedrovaya Street” on Wednesday.
Tobolsk City Duma appeared to contradict the investigators’ claims that the circumstances of Mr Egorov’s death were still being established, after it published an obituary on its social media channel claiming that Mr Egorov died “as a result of an accident.”
The local Duma praised Mr Egorov for providing “comprehensive support to the participants of the Special Military Operation and the families of military personnel” battling Ukrainian forces and for taking “an active part in the social and political life of the city”.
Mr Egorov isn’t the first Russian political or military figure to meet a mysterious end in recent months. Most notably, the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin sparked widespread scepticism, after the official narrative claimed that he had been involved in a plane crash.
Although the plane crash certainly appeared to take place, the circumstances around how it came to pass were questioned by many outside of Russia, as Mr Prigozhin had recently failed to launch a coup against the Kremlin.
Other notable Russian deaths of late include Ravil Maganov, chair of Lukoil, the second largest oil and gas company in the country. He sensationally spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, before falling out of a window in a Moscow hospital, according to TASS.
Another to add to that list is Russian sausage kingpin-turned-lawyer Pavel Antov. Mr Antov was a member off the United Russia party and died in India in December 2022 after falling from the third floor of his hotel, according to Indian police.
