Russian oligarchs continue to die in an unexplainable manner regularly. Recently, Pavel Antov passed away in India after falling from a hotel room.
Pavel Antov, the wealthiest Russian lawmaker, passed away while on vacation in India. The 65-year-old died last Saturday after falling out of his hotel room, according to the Indian news network NDTV. He has previously spoken out against Vladimir Putin’s campaign against Ukraine. And Vladimir Bidenov, a fellow traveler, was discovered dead just a few days before Antov passed away.
The Russian politician is well-known; Antov made billions as the founder and owner of one of Russia’s largest meat industries and served as a deputy for Putin’s ruling United Russia party. Antov, close to Putin, had called the Russian rocket attacks on Kyiv “terrorism” against civilians in July.
The 65-year-old is now deceased. Did the Kremlin perhaps kill him? That’s the question many Russians are asking.
Moscow-born Pavel Antov is a politician and philanthropist. At a young age, Pavel Genrikhovich Antov received his medical degree from the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy. Anton established the meat business “Vladimir Standard” in 2000, and with it, he became one of Russia’s most prosperous meat producers. As the committee chairman on agricultural policy, Antov was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Vladimir region in 2018.
Antonov also served on the regional committee for family affairs, youth, sports, culture, tourism, and the media, according to the Russian news outlet RusTeamMedia. Antonov also had a strong sense of social responsibility; he established the Russian art organization “ArtSoyuzZebra” and actively promoted the Vladimir painting school.
One of Russia’s wealthiest men is worth around 10 billion rubles.
According to the daily financial Forbes, Antov ranked first in the 2019 ranking of the wealthiest politicians and lawmakers in Russia, with a reported income of 9.97 billion rubles (about 137 million euros) following his election as a representative of the Vladimir region.
According to “RusTeamMedia” at the time, in 2020, his successful meat company grew more extensive, and he opened another meat processing industry in the Vladimir region, creating 340 employees.
He denounced Putin’s war on WhatsApp before walking it back.
Antov was one of Putin’s closest confidants despite being Russia’s richest MP, but nothing is known about his personal life or his actual political views.
Antov garnered media attention in the summer of 2022 when he openly condemned the war in Ukraine. In July, he used the tales of a girl who had been rescued from the wreckage after her home had been bombarded to label the Russian rocket assaults on Kyiv as “terrorism.”
A short while later, Antov apologized and retracted his statement, saying someone else had posted the message on his social media. Antov continued by declaring that he “shares the goals” of the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine and that he is “a supporter of the President and a patriot of his nation.”
Earlier, a fellow traveler had died in the same hotel.
It’s still unknown how he mysteriously died. Anton went on a journey with four people to mark his impending 66th birthday. Antov reportedly checked into Hotel Sai International in Rayagada on Wednesday. On Saturday, he was discovered dead in a pool of blood outside the hotel.
Particularly puzzling is that one of Antov’s fellow travelers had passed away only a few days earlier in the same hotel. Vladimir Bogdanov, a Russian, was found dead in a hotel room on December 22. Police information indicates that the 61-year-old passed away from a heart attack.
However, the Russian Consulate General in Kolkata stated that there was no proof of a crime, according to the Russian state news agency “Tass.” According to a senior police officer, Antov’s death seemed to be a suicide since he was grieving the loss of his wife, the PTI news agency reported to the Indian television channel NDTV.
Similar situations
Anton’s death is one of several mysterious oligarch deaths in Russia. For instance, Rawal Maganov, CEO of the Russian oil corporation Lukoil, passed away in September after falling from a Moscow hospital window. The 67-year-old had received hospital treatment for heart issues. According to the Russian media, the most likely cause of death was suicide. Early on, the representative of the Russian oil corporation voiced his disapproval of the war in Ukraine.
After dinner on the French Côte d’Azur, Russian billionaire Dmitry Zelenov suddenly felt ill. This led to another mysterious death in early December. He subsequently fell over the fence for an unknown reason, and shortly after that, he passed away in the hospital.