Pavel Antov had a net worth of $156 million in 2019.
The friend of a Russian millionaire who fell from the roof of a hotel in India has died of a heart attack linked to drug abuse and drunkenness. This was stated by the Indian authorities in an attempt to unravel the deaths of the two Russians, who left one after the other within a few days during the holidays.
Multi-millionaire Pavel Antov, MP for the pro-Putin United Russia party, was celebrating his upcoming 66th birthday in Rayagada, but was found dead in a pool of blood outside a luxury hotel on Saturday. He is known in his country as the king of sausages, as he has a business in the meat industry.
His mysterious fall came just two days after his partner in India, Vladimir Budanov, who was 61, died in hospital after falling suddenly ill.
“All possible scenarios regarding the death of the two Russian nationals are being studied. For now, it seems that Antov accidentally fell from the hotel terrace,” regional police chief Rajesh Pandit told AFP. He added that Budanov’s death was probably caused by
binge drinking and possible overdose
drug, although the Indian authorities are still awaiting the results of the autopsy.
The police chief suggested that Antov may have committed suicide by jumping from the roof terrace of the Sai International Hotel in a fit of grief over Budanov’s death.
“He was probably upset by his friend’s death and went onto the terrace of the hotel and probably fell,” the police chief said. However, the circumstances of the deaths of the two Russians are far from disclosed.
Russian consul-general in Calcutta Alexei Idamkin told TASS that Antov fell from a hotel window, not that he jumped off the roof.
“We are closely monitoring the investigation and getting all the information from the Odisha police,” the diplomat said.
Police said they were reviewing CCTV footage, questioning hotel staff and awaiting final autopsy reports, but so far there are no signs anything suspicious has happened to the pair. However, both bodies have already been cremated.
According to Western publications, Antov traveled with the deceased Bidanov, as well as two other Russian citizens – Natalia Pansasenko and her husband Mikhail Turov.
Antov is a well-known deputy of the local parliament from the Vladimir region near Moscow. In 2018, he topped Russia’s Forbes ranking for the country’s 100 richest civil servants. Thanks to his initiatives, he earned $156.3 million in 2018. The deputy made his fortune in the meat industry by founding the Vladimirsky Standard food processing enterprise. He was born in Voskresensk near Moscow and graduated from the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy.
He played an important role in the Vladimir legislative assembly, heading the commission on agricultural policy and ecology. The deputy chairman of the assembly, Vyacheslav Kartukhin, said he died in “tragic circumstances”.
In June, Antov criticized the war and the air strikes against Kiev as Russian “terror” on social networks. He then commented on a specific Russian attack, saying: ‘A girl has been pulled out of the rubble, the father appears to have been killed. They are trying to get the mother out with a crane because she is stuck under a slab. To be honest, this is extremely hard
to be called anything but terror”
The millionaire later retracted the comment and apologized, claiming his social media post was an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and a “technical error”. He insisted that he had “always supported the president” and that he “sincerely” believed in the objectives of Putin’s military operation.
Journalists, however, adamantly disputed his new opinion.
20 rich Russians they met their death after the start of the war
This year, 22 high-ranking Russian businessmen have died by suicide or in unexplained accidents, six of them related to Russia’s two largest energy companies, CNN reported. The media describe some of them. One of the latest cases is that of Alexander Buzakov, head of a shipyard specializing in non-nuclear submarines. He died suddenly last week with no cause of death given.
Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute, died in an unspecified crash in September. According to various sources, he fell down the stairs.
Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov also died in September after falling from a hospital window in Moscow. Another top manager of the company, Alexander Subotin, was found dead near the Russian capital in May after visiting a shaman. Lukoil is one of the few Russian companies that has publicly called for an end to the invasion of Ukraine.
In mid-September, Russian businessman Ivan Pechorin, who was a top manager of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, was found dead in Vladivostok. He is believed to have fallen off his yacht and drowned near Cape Ignatiev in the Sea of Japan. Pechorin is said to have been tasked with modernizing Russia’s aviation industry and to have worked directly under Vladimir Putin.
In March, the bodies of Russian billionaire Vasily Melnikov and his family were found in their luxury apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. He made his fortune working for one of the medical companies affected by Western sanctions. In April, former Gazprombank deputy chairman Vladislav Avaev, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter were found shot and killed in their Moscow apartment. Police said the businessman probably killed his family and then took his own life. Just a day later, Sergey Protosenya, the former head of gas producer Novatek, was found hanged in his villa in Spain along with his wife and daughter, who had been stabbed to death. According to police, the rich man killed his family before hanging himself, although no suicide note was found. Protosenya’s son later said that he thought he fathered him was killed.
Ukrainian-born Russian oil and gas billionaire Mikhail Watford was also found dead at his home in Surrey, England, on February 28. According to the municipal police, there are no suspicious circumstances in the case.
In July, police found Yuri Voronov, the head of the Astra Shipping company, which deals with Gazprom, dead in a swimming pool at his home in the same suburb near St. Petersburg. He was found with a gunshot wound to the head and authorities again ruled it a suicide.
Just a month before the conflict broke out in Ukraine, a senior executive of the gas company Gazprom was found dead in his villa near St. Petersburg. Leonid Shulman, 60, was found in the bathroom with his veins severed.
The morning after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Alexander Tyulyakov, Gazprom’s top corporate security chief, died at his home in the same village of Shulman. According to Novaya Gazeta, he hanged himself in his garage.
