A senior Russian oil executive has died after falling from the window of a Moscow hospital, months after his company criticised the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ravil Maganov, the chair of the board of directors of Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, “fell from a window at Central clinical hospital”, the Interfax news agency wrote on Thursday, citing a source. “He died from injuries sustained.”
Lukoil said Maganov had “passed away following a severe illness”. The company did not say what Maganov was being treated for.
It was not immediately clear whether his death was an accident, a suicide, or caused by foul play. Russian state media agencies citing an unnamed source reported that Maganov had been admitted to the hospital with a heart condition and had been on antidepressants.
Baza, a Russian news site with close ties to the police, suggested he may have slipped from a balcony while smoking and that no CCTV was available because cameras had been turned off for repairs.
Meanwhile, the state-run news agency Tass claimed on Thursday that Maganov had taken his own life, citing a source in Russia’s security services who called Maganov’s death a “suicide”. That version of events could not immediately be verified by the Guardian.
Half a dozen businesspeople with ties to the Russian energy industry have died in apparent suicides or in mysterious circumstances since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. None of the deaths have been classified as murders.
Maganov’s death has attracted scrutiny because Lukoil was rare among Russian energy companies in criticising the invasion of Ukraine, publicly calling for a ceasefire just one week after Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of Moscow’s “special military operation”.
“Calling for the soonest termination of the armed conflict, we express our sincere empathy for all victims who are affected by this tragedy,” the board of directors of Lukoil said. “We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy.”
Maganov was a prominent member of the Russian business elite. He was a close associate of one of Lukoil’s founders, Vagit Alekperov, a former Soviet oil minister who resigned from his position as CEO shortly after the UK and EU imposed sanctions on him.
Maganov had worked at Lukoil since 1993 and had overseen refining and exploration divisions before being named chair of its board of directors in 2020.
A former top manager of Lukoil was found dead in the basement of a residence in a Moscow suburb in May. Russian news reports said the house belonged to a self-style shaman who practiced purification rites. Investigators said the preliminary cause of death was determined to be heart failure.
The incident occurred on the same day Vladimir Putin visited the hospital in order to pay his respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.
