Russian oligarch dies from falling out of his hotel window in Odisha

In a mysterious turn of events, Pavel Antov, a Russian businessman and philanthropist died after he fell from the third floor of his hotel in Rayagada in Odisha on Saturday. The sausage-tycoon was on vacation, celebrating his 65th birthday.

This is the second death of Russian lawmakers within a week in the same Odisha hotel. Two days earlier, Antov's party colleague, Vladimir Budanov, 61, a tourist died in the hotel of a heart attack.

According to Russian News Agency, TASS, Vyacheslav Kartukhin, Vice Speaker of the Regional Parliament on the Telegram channel said, "Our colleague, a successful entrepreneur, and philanthropist Pavel Antov passed away. On behalf of the deputies of the United Russia faction, I express my deep condolences to relatives and friends."

Pavel Antov's death is among a series of other deaths of Russian oligarchs who have criticised the Vladimir Putin-led administration's war with Ukraine. These individuals too have met similar mysterious ends, where they were found to have fallen out of windows.

Newsweek has compiled a list of Russian oligarchs who were found mysteriously dead after they criticised Putin.

The list includes Anatoly Gerashchenko, a 72-year-old scientist, who had been the rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute from 2007 to 2015. According to the Moscow Aviation Institute, the scientist "fell from a great height" and was declared dead by paramedics who arrived on the scene.

Ravil Maganov, the chairman of an oil company that criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reportedly died earlier this year after falling from a hospital window.

Ivan Pechorin drowned on September 10 near Cape Ignatyev in Vladivostok and his body was found near the village of Beregovoe. In December 2021, Yegor Prosvirnin—the founder of the nationalist website Sputnik and Pogrom—died after falling out of a window of a residential building in the center of Moscow.

The Dutch NOS news network described the phenomenon as "a grim series of Russian billionaires", who have been found dead under unusual circumstances since early this year. Many of these oligarchs are from the oil and gas industries. In several of these instances, bodies of their families have also been discovered with stab wounds and knife marks.

Meanwhile, Odisha police have initiated a high-level investigation into Pavel Antov's death.

Odisha DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal has ordered the CID-Crime Branch to take over the inquiry into the cases related to unnatural deaths of two Russian nationals in the Rayagada ditrict.

The police are yet to ascertain whether Antov accidentally fell off the terrace of the hotel, or committed suicide. The cops are also looking into other angles of the two cases.

"We have registered an unnatural death case and are conducting an investigation. The post-mortem has been done. The Russian authority in Kolkata is in touch with us. We are extending all support they want in this case," the DGP informed.

Meanwhile, Pandit Rajesh Uttamrao, DIG, Koraput, along with Rayagada SP Vivekanand Sharma visited the hotel as part of the probe.

"Our scientific investigation is going on. We are waiting for the post-mortem reports. As per doctors' opinion in the report, we will conduct further investigation," said Pandit.

(With Agency Inputs)