Putin Linked To Mysterious Deaths Of At Least 7 Russian Oligarchs, Sources Claim

As investigations into the murder-suicide of two Russian oligarchs and their families continue in two different countries, an expert on Wednesday claimed that Russia and President Vladimir Putin may have been behind the crimes all along.

The alleged murder-suicide of Vladislav Avayev and his family, and Sergei Protosenya and his family, made headlines due to the proximity of their deaths despite being in two different countries, with the former happening in Moscow and the latter happening in Spain, according to Business Insider.

Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist who has written about Russia in the past, however, speculates that the deaths may have been assassinations ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin after their government suspected that one of the oligarchs was leaking information about the financial operations of the country, the New York Post reported.

“There is a cleaning out going on and it’s difficult to pin down any one person down who’s doing it,” Aslund said. “But this looks like Kremlin murders to me.”

“Putin finances a lot of his operations through Gazprom and Gazprombank, and the executives who work there know all about this secret financing. The gas sector is the most corrupt sector in Russia,” he said, describing the process.

Over seven Russian oligarchs are suspected to have been murdered under the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a lot of the deceased being energy executives that run some of the powerful oil companies in the country.

Among the possible people ordered to be killed are 60-year-old oil executive Leonid Shulman, who had slit his wrists in a bathtub; Alexander Tyulyakov, who was found hanging in his home; and Mikhail Watford, who was discovered hanging in the garage of this mansion.

“These aren’t dissidents. They could be getting hit by contract killers or it could also be some sort of warring business clans,” analyst John Hardie said.

“What we’re seeing now are classic Soviet-era tactics,” author John O’Neill said. “Stalin had to devise a way of disposing of people discreetly. And he figured out a way back in 1921 when he created Laboratory One, which was basically a bioweapon lab with a tunnel connecting it directly to the headquarters of the KGB.”

No official report confirming the speculations has appeared as of press time.