A Russian businessman with ties to state-owned energy giant Gazprom has died outside St. Petersburg in the latest in a series of mysterious deaths to grip the country’s gas industry in 2022.
Yury Voronov, 61, headed the Astra Shipping transportation firm that worked on Gazprom’s Arctic projects, according to the company’s website.
Voronov’s body was reportedly found Monday afternoon with a gunshot wound to the head in the pool of an elite cottage in the affluent St. Petersburg suburb of Morskiye Terrasy, the city’s 47.ru news website reported Tuesday.
Several shell casings were allegedly found at the bottom of the pool and a Grand Power pistol was recovered nearby.
Voronov’s widow told police that the businessman had previously lost money due to conflicts with contractors and partners, 47.ru reported.
She said Voronov had been drinking heavily for two weeks before going out of town last Friday.
Voronov is believed to be at least the fourth Gazprom-linked executive and the sixth figure linked to Russia’s gas industry to die in mysterious circumstances this year.
In January, the head of Gazprom Invest’s transport service, Leonid Shulman, was found dead in the bathroom of another elite cottage village 30 kilometers west of Morskiye Terrasy.
Gazprom’s unified settlement center deputy director, Alexander Tyulakov, was found in the same village of Leninskoye a month later.
In April, former Gazprombank Vice President Vladislav Avaev and former energy giant Novatek top manager Sergei Protosenya both committed apparent back-to-back murder-suicides in Moscow and Spain, respectively.
Other non-Gazprom-linked deaths include Ukrainian-born Russian billionaire Mikhail Watford, who died in Surrey, England, in late February, and former Lukoil executive Alexander Subbotin who passed away outside Moscow in early May.