https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/russian-oil-executive-dies-suddenly-found-hanged-in-office-marking-company-s-4th-management-death-since-ukraine-invasion/ar-BB1jTJOC?ocid
Russian Oil Executive Dies 'Suddenly,' Found Hanged in Office, Marking Company's 4th Management Death Since Ukraine Invasion
Story by Richard Burkard • 9h
The list of dead executives from one of Russia’s largest oil companies keeps increasing, and raising suspicions.
Knewz.com has learned about the latest death at the top of Lukoil. A vice president died “suddenly” Tuesday, March 12, the company revealed in a statement.
Vitaly Robertus was 54, and praised in the statement as ”a talented leader, a versatile person, and a sympathetic comrade.”
But Robertus may have killed himself. Several Telegram channels reviewed by Newsweek reported Thursday, March 14 that he was found “hanged” in his office.
“Before his death, he allegedly complained of headaches,” the ASTRA channel claimed.
“On the eve of his death, his acquaintances saw him in a sober mind and in good health,” the VChK-OGPU channel added.
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But former Ukrainian government adviser Anton Gerashchenko cited an unnamed “source” who said Senior Vice President Oleg Pashaev found Robertus’s body in a private bathroom after knocking on his office door.
“Robertus was complaining that Pashaev was stalking him and making his life difficult,” Gerashchenko posted on X (formerly Twitter).
When first responders arrived, “employees told them that the atmosphere at Lukoil has been very stressful recently and the vice-president was very nervous,” Gerashchenko added.
A separate post by Gerashchenko claimed gasoline prices across Russia are at a six-month high, due to Ukrainian drone attacks damaging oil depots that Knewz.com has documented. Gas exports reportedly have been banned since Friday, March 1.
The Sun tabloid noted from Britain that Robertus worked for Lukoil for more than 30 years. He also was a champion at designing and flying model planes.
But Kremlin-watchers wonder if there’s a deadly trend, since three other top officials at Lukoil have died since Russia attacked Ukraine 25 months ago.
Front Page Detectives reported in October 2023 on the death of Lukoil chairman of the board Vladimir Nekrasov at his home. That death at 66 was blamed on “acute heart failure.”
Before that, Knewz.com covered the most suspicious-looking Lukoil death in the summer of 2022.
Chairman Ravil Maganov, 67, reportedly fell out of a hospital window “following a severe illness.” He was a patient on the sixth floor of Moscow’s top-level Central Clinical Hospital.
Former Lukoil executive Alexander Subbotin, 43, died in May 2022. That was blamed on a heart attack, but rumors in Russia claim he was poisoned with toad venom provided by a shaman in a “Jamaican voodoo ritual.”
Why might the Kremlin have something against Lukoil and its officials?
One theory is that Lukoil called for negotiations to end the violence against Ukraine. While Knewz.com has noted Russian officials are accepting that view now, it was once considered a sign of disloyalty to President Vladimir Putin.
But if the suicide explanation for Robertus is true, it would not be unlike recent deaths of executives in the United States.
CNN recalled the co-founder of Dave & Buster’s entertainment centers apparently died by suicide in early 2023. The chief executive of Atlanta’s MARTA transportation system killed himself in early 2022, according to WAGA-TV.
A branch of Lukoil operates gas stations in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. It purchased what was known as Getty Oil in 2000.