Speaker 1: Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Speaker 1: Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
Speaker 1: he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists,
Speaker 1: was poisoned, murdered his whole family.
Speaker 2: Last gm more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in
Speaker 2: the space of nine months. Many of the deaths are
Speaker 2: suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach,
Speaker 2: an investigation into these recently.
Speaker 1: Dead Russian billionaires.
Speaker 2: It's created by me Jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergei Slipchenkov.
Speaker 2: Sad Oligach is a H eleven production for Kulso Media
Speaker 2: and Ieheart Radio. July fourth, twenty twenty two, lenning Grad region,
Speaker 2: near Saint Petersburg, multimillionaire Russian businessman Yuri Voronov sixty one,
Speaker 2: is taking a swim in his pool at one of
Speaker 2: his luxury properties. This one a cottage mansion in the
Speaker 2: wealthy Marine Terraces. Area is surrounded by tall trees in Greenland.
Speaker 2: Any urban developments are miles away. It's a peaceful area
Speaker 2: for rich folk who don't want to be disturbed. As
Speaker 2: Juri Voronov goes about is downtime, swimming, lounging around relaxing.
Speaker 2: A man with a gun is sneaking through the trees.
Speaker 2: He's headed to Voronov's place. Voronov is stood by the
Speaker 2: side of his pool. The gunman sneaks inside the house,
Speaker 2: steps out to the pool area and raises his gun
Speaker 2: to Voronov. He pulls the trigger, several shots ring out.
Speaker 2: Voronov is hit once in the head. He falls back
Speaker 2: into the pool dead. The gunman strangely throws them murder
Speaker 2: weapon into the pool and leaves the bullet casings on
Speaker 2: the floor before running off back into the trees. At
Speaker 2: two pm, Voronov is found floating in the now red
Speaker 2: water of his swimming pool. Those were the last moments
Speaker 2: of Yuri Voronov, or at least that's the main story.
Speaker 2: The other theory is that Voronov committed suicide. He fired
Speaker 2: the gun several times, which left the multiple casings on
Speaker 2: the floor. He then shot himself in the head before
Speaker 2: falling into the pool. Now to me, this doesn't really
Speaker 2: make much sense, but it's worth mentioning because news of
Speaker 2: this shooting in Russia quickly drifted off into the ether.
Speaker 2: A multi millionaire was found dead in his pool with
Speaker 2: several bullet casings and the gun left at the scene,
Speaker 2: but state media largely went quiet on it after that. Essentially,
Speaker 2: the possibility of suicide was left in the air when
Speaker 2: the reality is this doesn't look much like a suicide.
Speaker 2: The only indication that it might not be a hit
Speaker 2: is that apparently the gunman wasn't picked up on security
Speaker 2: cameras at Voronov's home. That's what Russian Knew says anyway.
Speaker 2: Before his untimely death at his luxury Leningrad cottage, Yurivoranov
Speaker 2: owned a major logistics company called Astra Shipping. They dealt
Speaker 2: with construction installations and of course, shipping projects. Astra had
Speaker 2: lucrative contracts with two major firms we've come across already
Speaker 2: in this series, Gazprom and Luke Koyok, the two largest
Speaker 2: oil and gas companies in Russia. By the time of
Speaker 2: his death. This made Voronov the fourth Gazprom linked business
Speaker 2: executive to die in twenty twenty two. By twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: there'd be many more. So, Sergiy, what do we know
Speaker 2: about Voronov's company, Astra Shipping and it's various connections to
Speaker 2: Gazprom luke Oil.
Speaker 3: From what I'm seeing, it's a separate company, but everywhere
Speaker 3: it's referred to as like a contractor of gas Prom.
Speaker 3: They actually have other companies that they claim it's just
Speaker 3: as partners. So I mean, I don't know exactly what
Speaker 3: they do, but I'm assuming just people they work with.
Speaker 3: It includes a bunch of other gas company including Louke Oil.
Speaker 3: They do summer Arctic shipping. At the time that was
Speaker 3: basically about four months in the summer where you can
Speaker 3: use the northern shipping routes above Russia. It's starting to
Speaker 3: be a bit more often.
Speaker 2: Now so Uri Voronov's Astra Shipping company would take tankers
Speaker 2: through Arctic seas, moving equipment, materials and freight for Gazprom
Speaker 2: and luke Oil, who they were partnered with. This is
Speaker 2: of course a very big job. Creative contracts Astra Shipping
Speaker 2: had with the gas and oil companies put a lot
Speaker 2: of money into play, both to be made and lost
Speaker 2: if anything was mishandled. Voronov seems to have been very
Speaker 2: much involved with all facets of the business.
Speaker 3: It seems like he was the only one in charge.
Speaker 3: He was a director, but like basically in charge of
Speaker 3: the company. From what I can tell, it hasn't been updated,
Speaker 3: nobody's taken over. That's pretty much has been abandoned since
Speaker 3: he died. And yeah, the company in the last two
Speaker 3: years lost about one hundred and sixty million rubles. It
Speaker 3: wasn't super profitable before, like it made a couple of
Speaker 3: million here there. I think it was most profitable in
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen, But in the last two years they were
Speaker 3: just straight up losing. Like I think it was nineteen
Speaker 3: million in one year and then sixty the next something
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 2: Voronov's Astra Shipping was losing money handover fist. Now, one
Speaker 2: thing to understand is is that when multimillionaires have one
Speaker 2: business that's losing money, it's not the same if your
Speaker 2: average non rich person loses money. Losing money is often
Speaker 2: part of the ups and downs of big business, and
Speaker 2: sometimes it's orchestrated that way for tax dodging purposes. Voronov,
Speaker 2: it seems, though, was under a lot of pressure. This
Speaker 2: was serious, This was real. He was apparently drinking heavily
Speaker 2: in the run up to his murder and complaining regularly
Speaker 2: to his wife about problems within his business. She told
Speaker 2: Russian investigators that Voronov believed he'd been conned by contractors
Speaker 2: and business partners he worked with. He said to his
Speaker 2: wife that they'd quote behaved dishonorably. He was also arguing
Speaker 2: with people on the phone.
Speaker 3: His wife said, before he went off to the cottage,
Speaker 3: he was arguing with someone over losing money or owing money,
Speaker 3: something along those lines.
Speaker 2: There were no more specific details on this, but if
Speaker 2: the partners Voronov was angry about are at Gazprom, one
Speaker 2: of his major contracts, this is likely relevant. Remember, Gazprom
Speaker 2: is a major earner for the Kremlin, who owns forty
Speaker 2: nine percent of it. In twenty twenty two, Gazprom paid
Speaker 2: the Kremlin and extra eleven billion dollars after record profits
Speaker 2: of forty five billion dollars. It seems invading Ukraine was
Speaker 2: very profitable for the Kremlin gas giant. As we've covered
Speaker 2: already in this series, you don't mess with Gazprom. Doing
Speaker 2: so can have you feeling depressed and suicidal and unsteady
Speaker 2: near high windows. There's no indication though that Juri Voronov
Speaker 2: was messing with Gazprom. If anything, there's more possible signs
Speaker 2: that it was the other way around. Perhaps Voronov was
Speaker 2: involved in something else and me discussed this. The thing is, okay,
Speaker 2: if your business starts losing money and you're making money
Speaker 2: within the law, you go bankrupt. You know, you don't
Speaker 2: generally end up killed a mysterious circumstances, Like.
Speaker 3: You said, yeah, Like you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: companies that they have better years, worse years. They lose money,
Speaker 3: they bounce back. A bunch of companies lost money during COVID,
Speaker 3: which is when this company lost money.
Speaker 2: Now this is interesting, as Surgery said, looking at the
Speaker 2: profit records, it's clear that Astra Shipping began to lose
Speaker 2: money during the COVID pandemic, which spread first in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one. The thing is shipping was one of the
Speaker 2: few industries that thrived during COVID. Ocean freights carriers pulled
Speaker 2: in estimated profits of one hundred and fifty billion dollars
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one. So what happened with Astra Shipping.
Speaker 2: They had contracts with some of the biggest oil and
Speaker 2: gas companies in the world, and yet managed to lose
Speaker 2: money in the midst of a shipping company gold rush.
Speaker 1: Something doesn't add up.
Speaker 2: Maybe This is connected to what Yuri Voronov's wife said
Speaker 2: he was so angry about maybe a deal went wrong
Speaker 2: and Voronov ended up enraging people you don't want to enrage.
Speaker 2: Was found dead in his pool with multiple casings on
Speaker 2: the floor and one bullet in his head.
Speaker 1: As we said before.
Speaker 2: Though no one was caught on the security cameras when
Speaker 2: this happened.
Speaker 3: There was cameras like in the pool surrounding the property,
Speaker 3: and so it's kind of like, you know, if somebody
Speaker 3: killed him and the cameras are there and they weren't
Speaker 3: like tempered with, it should be pretty clear cut to
Speaker 3: see like what happened, right, But then they just mentioned
Speaker 3: that there was cameras and uscations ongoing and no updates since.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean, I don't want to jump the gun,
Speaker 2: but the fact that they say nobody was caught on
Speaker 2: the cameras suggest to me that maybe they kind of know,
Speaker 2: or at least they think that there was someone because
Speaker 2: if it was, okay, this is a straight suicide, I
Speaker 2: just don't think they would even mention it. Why would
Speaker 2: you mention that no one was caught on the cameras
Speaker 2: if someone just lit themselves up at home.
Speaker 3: They have camera footage. You look at that and you
Speaker 3: can tell what happened, like it's pretty clear. It should
Speaker 3: be pretty clear cut, you know. It's kind of hard
Speaker 3: to imagine that they were so perfect that they avoided
Speaker 3: all the security, all the cameras shot a guy nobody
Speaker 3: heard or found out, and got away with it too.
Speaker 3: A lot of things had to work out perfectly to
Speaker 3: just completely get away with this.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that or someone was paid to basically make
Speaker 2: the camera footage disappear. If we look at other things
Speaker 2: that have happened in the cases we've looked at, for example,
Speaker 2: someone's in a rich gaid community they've found hanged and
Speaker 2: literally gazprom security or able to push the police out,
Speaker 2: I think that kind of activity suggests to me at
Speaker 2: least that it's not actually that far fetched that, yeah,
Speaker 2: someone could have easily got paid off. Someone could have
Speaker 2: just said, hey, don't worry about looking at those cameras tonight.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think that's too far out
Speaker 1: of the realms of possibility.
Speaker 3: It doesn't even have to be any like conspiracy theory.
Speaker 3: Everybody's working together. Like in Russia, it's pretty common to
Speaker 3: give bribes for stuff. They honestly could have just been like, hey,
Speaker 3: here's some money, gave me the recordings, don't think about it.
Speaker 3: Of course, we don't know if that happens, but that's
Speaker 3: completely within the realm of possibility.
Speaker 2: Of course, this is just speculation at this point, but
Speaker 2: I think it's valid when you look at the other
Speaker 2: mysterious deaths we've already covered. Still, though things are unclear,
Speaker 2: Voronov was having money problems, blaming business partners and contractors.
Speaker 2: He then ends up floating in his pool with a
Speaker 2: bullet in his head, with multiple shots fired, and the
Speaker 2: authorities seemingly disinterested in the case. So we looked into
Speaker 2: the business records of Voronov to see if they might
Speaker 2: reveal any new information related to his death. Again, there
Speaker 2: was little out there, so on a long shot, we
Speaker 2: checked to see if Voronov was mentioned in the Panama Papers.
Speaker 2: Turns out he was, or at least the name is
Speaker 2: in there, attached to several shell companies. We couldn't confirm
Speaker 2: if it's the same Yuri Voronov as the one we're
Speaker 2: talking about, but.
Speaker 1: It does look likely.
Speaker 2: Now if you forgot what the Panama Papers are or
Speaker 2: haven't heard of them at all. That's probably because most
Speaker 2: of the people named in them completely got away with
Speaker 2: their crimes. There were no legal consequences for almost everyone involved.
Speaker 2: The Panama Papers were published on April third, twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: and they contain eleven point five million confidential documents from
Speaker 2: Panamanium law firm Mossak Fonseca. These documents detail how rich
Speaker 2: people across the world had been using secretive offshore bank
Speaker 2: accounts for illegal purposes such as tax evasion and fraud. Often,
Speaker 2: shell companies were used to hide money or quietly move
Speaker 2: it around. The shell company is a firm that's kept
Speaker 2: dormant and used if and when various financial maneuvers need
Speaker 2: to be cycled through it, usually to mask the original
Speaker 2: source of the funds. The shell company has no other purpose.
Speaker 2: In the Panama Papers, a Moscow based businessman named Yuri
Speaker 2: Voronov is linked to several shell companies, including one called
Speaker 2: Tembusu Holdings. Tembusu Holdings was incorporated on May third, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: and currently has two active directors. Interestingly, the latest confirmation
Speaker 2: statement for this usually dormant company was submitted May second,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, ten months after the death of Yurivoronov.
Speaker 2: The Voronov named in the papers also has a shell
Speaker 2: company called Gavin Consultants, which is based in the British
Speaker 2: Virgin Islands and banks in Switzerland. The British Virgin Islands
Speaker 2: is a tax haven for the rich and powerful. The
Speaker 2: Council of the European Union has placed the region on
Speaker 2: a blacklist of non cooperative tax jurisdictions. So if you're
Speaker 2: rich and you want to avoid tax, that's the place
Speaker 2: to do it. Now, it's not at all unusual that
Speaker 2: some unworth millions will be named in the Panama papers. However,
Speaker 2: if the Yurivoronov named in them is our guy, I
Speaker 2: think it's unlikely he committed suicide due to loss of earnings.
Speaker 2: Clearly he had his fingers in many different pies and
Speaker 2: likely had a huge amount of money spirited away all
Speaker 2: across the world in secret accounts. Pretty Much every multi
Speaker 2: millionaire has this in some capacity. Now, let's take a
Speaker 2: look at something more tangible the murder weapon. Yurivoronov was
Speaker 2: shot dead with a Grand Power T twelve handgun.
Speaker 1: This is weird.
Speaker 2: The T twelve fires less lethal rounds rubber bullet. This
Speaker 2: is not a gun manufactured to kill. However, the T
Speaker 2: twelve Voronov was shot with was converted to fire live rounds.
Speaker 2: If he was going to shoot himself, why as a
Speaker 2: rich man, would Voronov go through the trouble of purchasing
Speaker 2: a less lethal firing gun and then convert it. Frankly,
Speaker 2: there are much easier ways to commit suicide.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I've been around a ton of firearms due to my
Speaker 2: work reporting on war and conflict across the world, and
Speaker 2: I've never seen even militias or rebels using specifically converted
Speaker 2: less lethal guns.
Speaker 1: In their actions.
Speaker 2: Even gorilla forces with limited funding can get their hands
Speaker 2: on proper firearms.
Speaker 1: Where there's a will, there's a way.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, there's just no way Voronov wouldn't have
Speaker 2: been able to purchase a real gun for himself. It's
Speaker 2: not that hard in Russia. It's not that hard anywhere
Speaker 2: if you've got the cash and you know the right people.
Speaker 1: So to get a better idea of what's.
Speaker 2: Going on with this converted T twelve Voronov was shot with,
Speaker 2: I spoke to Bernardo Paz from War nowir Wunawa is
Speaker 2: an independent media outlet focused on identifying illicit firearms across
Speaker 2: the world. What have you found about this Grand Power
Speaker 2: T twelve, this gun that Uri Vornov was shot with.
Speaker 4: Basically, I can say that the Grand Power pistols are
Speaker 4: generally are actually quite common in the region, and the
Speaker 4: Model T twelve is actually a less little pistol. It
Speaker 4: basically produced to fire rubber bullets. It's quite easy to
Speaker 4: convert these pistols to fire li runs. You know, you
Speaker 4: can basically convert a blank firing pistol or a traumatic
Speaker 4: pistol into a real one.
Speaker 2: So why would somebody convert a less lethal gun to
Speaker 2: shoot live rounds to then commit an assassination?
Speaker 1: Do you think?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, not only traumatic pistols, but blank
Speaker 4: firing pistols as well. These are very easy to get
Speaker 4: and they are much more cheaper than when compared to
Speaker 4: other real pistols. That's the main reasons why many people
Speaker 4: prefer buying less lethal or blank firing pistols and convert
Speaker 4: them into the real ones. It's very easy to access them,
Speaker 4: you know, they're really cheap, and in some cases they
Speaker 4: can't be traced back to the real owner. And if
Speaker 4: the modification which I mean to convert it into a
Speaker 4: real pistol. Of course, if a good gun submit does
Speaker 4: these modifications, and these pistols can be quite reliable for
Speaker 4: short term usage.
Speaker 2: Really, so it's it's not such a big job to
Speaker 2: convert it.
Speaker 4: Now, if you have the required tools and if you
Speaker 4: know what are you doing, it's quite easy.
Speaker 2: Some people have a theory that this guy wasn't shot,
Speaker 2: he killed himself, despite the fact that there were several rounds,
Speaker 2: Like several shots were fired. This guy was a multi millionaire.
Speaker 2: I can't see why a multi millionaire would have a
Speaker 2: less lethal gun and then convert it to then show himself.
Speaker 2: That seems unusual to me. What do you think, Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4: If he wanted to kill himself, he wouldn't get a
Speaker 4: less little pistol converted into real one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird. Right.
Speaker 2: Where are these guns manufactured? What do we know about them?
Speaker 2: I read that it's a Russian gun, but then I
Speaker 2: also aware that it's it was made in Slovakia, but
Speaker 2: some of them are made the TI twelve made in Russia.
Speaker 1: What's the reality that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in general, the brand is originated from Slovakia. However,
Speaker 4: these pistols are exported to many countries, including Russia, any
Speaker 4: country you name it. They are quite easy to find
Speaker 4: in many countries. They can be considered quite cheap brand
Speaker 4: when you compare to other brands. They're also quite common
Speaker 4: among some non state armed groups in Russia as well.
Speaker 4: It's not originated from Russia, but it's common in there too.
Speaker 4: The gunpower has a branch in Russia too.
Speaker 2: This is particularly important as pass just said, converted grand
Speaker 2: power T twelves are common enough amongst non state armed
Speaker 2: groups in Russia, specifically in this instance, he's talking about
Speaker 2: armed criminal organizations. This is sounding more and more like
Speaker 2: a hit that someone paid for Voronov to be killed
Speaker 2: due to whichever dispute was bothering him before his death.
Speaker 2: Once the gun is converted from the less lethal defense
Speaker 2: gun into a live round firing gun like a a gun,
Speaker 2: what rounds.
Speaker 1: Do they shoot? What bullets will it shoot? Then?
Speaker 4: Well, it is almost impossible to say anything definite because
Speaker 4: that can be different warrants. But I can say that
Speaker 4: most of the converted guns are usually chambered in torty
Speaker 4: two ACP.
Speaker 1: Toty two ACP.
Speaker 4: Is a name for the ammunition that seven point six
Speaker 4: to five. They were quite common in some countries. You know,
Speaker 4: some brownique pistols, water pistols are shambled in this runt.
Speaker 4: It's basically much smaller than nine millimeters and they're easy
Speaker 4: to fit to make signe and the pistol when you
Speaker 4: rebel it. It's spread common in many countries, including Krushia.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I just it's really odd to me that anyone, whether
Speaker 2: they kill themselves or whether someone goes to kill someone,
Speaker 2: that they would use a converted pistol. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: not exactly hard to get hold of a gun in Russia.
Speaker 2: It's not hard to get hold of a gun really anywhere.
Speaker 1: Have you any theories.
Speaker 2: As to why they would have would have used this
Speaker 2: weapon to kill somebody with?
Speaker 4: Yeah, First of all, they might have chosen this pistol
Speaker 4: because they may want to abandoned pistols or destroy it
Speaker 4: as soon as they carry out the assassination.
Speaker 2: So, according to Puz, who dedicates his time to identifying
Speaker 2: firearms and understanding their use in a specific text, converted
Speaker 2: T twelve is useful if you want to commit an
Speaker 2: assassination and then dispose of the weapon. Remember, this is
Speaker 2: exactly what happened at Voronov's cottage. He was shot and
Speaker 2: the gun was thrown into the pool with him, But
Speaker 2: why would you leave the gun there at the actual scene?
Speaker 2: Guns can be often traced back to the person who
Speaker 2: used it, apparently, though not so much if it's a
Speaker 2: converted less lethal gun.
Speaker 4: Chasing the countered pistols, you know, it's more hard to
Speaker 4: chase it compared to the real pistols. So these are
Speaker 4: the most common theories in my opinion.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting.
Speaker 2: It might interest you to know as well that once
Speaker 2: the shooter, which it's pretty clear to me that the
Speaker 2: guy was shot by somebody, once the shooter shot this
Speaker 2: oligarch fella, they threw the gun into the swimming pool.
Speaker 2: They didn't take it with them, They threw it, they
Speaker 2: discarded it.
Speaker 4: If it was a real gun, let's say, a Beretta
Speaker 4: or a Carol, let's say, it would be much more
Speaker 4: easier to check this pistol to original owner, Mitch. Might
Speaker 4: it cause some more problems for the guy who shut
Speaker 4: the oligarch in the pool?
Speaker 2: You know, right, I don't know if it's any bearing
Speaker 2: on it. But do you know if chlorinated water, you know,
Speaker 2: the pool, would that have any kind of relevance in
Speaker 2: removing any forensics from a gun or anything.
Speaker 4: Do you think, well, I don't think that the pul
Speaker 4: water or the chemical compounds related to topic. I think
Speaker 4: they basically wanted to dispose the pistol because it would
Speaker 4: be more easy to claim that the guy shut himself.
Speaker 2: I think Pezz is onto something here. It's looking more
Speaker 2: and more like the converted Grand Power T twelve is
Speaker 2: a perfect gun for a quick assassination. It's easy to
Speaker 2: buy in Russia, easy to convert, it's common, there's load
Speaker 2: of them in circulation, and it's hard to trace it.
Speaker 1: Back to anyone.
Speaker 2: Maybe the business partners who Voronov told his wife were
Speaker 2: quote behaving dishonorably went a step further into their Dishonor
Speaker 2: maybe they hired a hitman from one of the many
Speaker 2: criminal networks in Russia to murder Voronov. Perhaps they told
Speaker 2: the guy to make it look like a suicide. The
Speaker 2: gunman messed up. He chose a gun that wouldn't be
Speaker 2: traced back to him, the converted T twelve, because he'd
Speaker 2: leave the murder weapon at the scene to make.
Speaker 1: It look like a suicide.
Speaker 2: In choosing the T twelve, though, he made it look suspicious,
Speaker 2: that and the multiple gunshots. It's a theory, but I
Speaker 2: think it's quite solid. It's either that or it's all
Speaker 2: just another coincidence.
Speaker 1: S me discuss this.
Speaker 2: So if it is just a coincidence, basically, you just
Speaker 2: have to kind of accept that working within the gas
Speaker 2: and oil industry in Russia in a big scale, one
Speaker 2: of the hazards of the job is you might have
Speaker 2: a mysterious death.
Speaker 1: It's funny you mentioned that.
Speaker 3: I was just reading comments and somebody was saying, nobody
Speaker 3: thinks of the occupational hazards of being a rich oil
Speaker 3: like Oligarch or whatever, kind of making fun of how
Speaker 3: many people, how many of them you know, have died.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's weird. One is nothing, two is
Speaker 2: a bit odd. But if you look at the stage
Speaker 2: where all of these mysterious deaths that we've covered already,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was me, i'd be worried
Speaker 2: about my line of work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean literally, I think at that point when
Speaker 3: somebody commented, that would have been like four or six
Speaker 3: months and about five or seven people linked to this
Speaker 3: have died. You know, there's a lot of connections to
Speaker 3: Gus Prom. One of the first guys was connected to transport,
Speaker 3: like the transports of gas Prompt. Then the other guy
Speaker 3: was security again gas Prom.
Speaker 2: As well as dead rich Russian businessman connected to Gazprom.
Speaker 2: There were other connections to recently deceased people in Voronov's
Speaker 2: sphere of interest, specifically in the Arctic, where astro shipping
Speaker 2: was very active.
Speaker 3: We haven't talked about these guys yet, but actually there's
Speaker 3: two of the guys from Russia's like government department, almost
Speaker 3: like the Arctic Development Fund. There's the two guys, one
Speaker 3: guy where he there's an ego Nosov. He actually died
Speaker 3: on February eighth, and seemingly he has like one of
Speaker 3: the more likely to be a natural scenario. But then
Speaker 3: his coworker dies a couple months later in the boat crash,
Speaker 3: like his boat goes missing, his body is found like
Speaker 3: washed up somewhere. They're both linked to like Arctic development
Speaker 3: and stuff. So I mean, all these guys seem to
Speaker 3: be like in resource extraction, transport, those kind of things.
Speaker 3: So I mean, again that's exactly the tightest connections, but
Speaker 3: it's all kind of like close enough that it's like, again,
Speaker 3: so many of them are dying in this seemingly safe profession.
Speaker 3: If it's a coincidence, it's, you know, maybe time to
Speaker 3: get out of that line of industry if you can,
Speaker 3: And maybe some of these guys tried to, and this
Speaker 3: is what happened.
Speaker 2: Maybe, as with the other cases, this one is somewhat
Speaker 2: left up in the air if you put this all
Speaker 2: together in a web. Though, so many people in this
Speaker 2: line of work who've had their lives cut short recently
Speaker 2: are connected in some way, all within twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Let's look at the timeline. April twenty ninth, Leonoid Shulman,
Speaker 2: Gazprom Transport executive, death by suicide. He slashed his wrists
Speaker 2: in the bath. February twenty fifth. Alexander Tyolokov, Gazprom Security executive,
Speaker 2: death by suicide.
Speaker 1: He hanged himself in his garage. April nineteenth.
Speaker 2: Sergey Protozenya Novtech Gas Company executive, death by suicide. He
Speaker 2: killed his family and then himself.
Speaker 1: May eighth.
Speaker 2: Alexander Sabotchin lou Coil board member, death by poisoning. He
Speaker 2: died after being administered frog Venom July fourth, Yuri Voronov,
Speaker 2: contractor to both Gazprom and lou Coil death by gunshot.
Speaker 1: He died via a bullet through the head.
Speaker 2: All of this happened within the space of seven months,
Speaker 2: and there's much more we'll hear about in the rest
Speaker 2: of the series. Make of this what you will, but
Speaker 2: to me, it seems that being a rich Russian businessman
Speaker 2: connected to the country's energy companies is very bad for
Speaker 2: your health. Sad Oliger is a H eleven production for
Speaker 2: cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio. Hosted, produced, researched and edited
Speaker 2: by me Jake Hanrahan and Sergei Slipchenko. Co produced by
Speaker 2: Sophie Lichtmint. Music by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle,
Speaker 2: sound mix by Splicing Block. Go to Jakeanrahan dot com
Speaker 2: for more information.