Speaker 1: Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Speaker 2: Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
Speaker 2: he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists,
Speaker 2: was poisoned, murdered his whole family.
Speaker 3: Last year, more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in
Speaker 3: the space of nine months. Many of the deaths are
Speaker 3: suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach,
Speaker 3: an investigation into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created
Speaker 3: by me jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergey Slipchenkok. Sad
Speaker 3: Oligarch is a h eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: On September one, twenty twenty two, sixty seven year old
Speaker 3: oil baron Raval Maganov was at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital.
Speaker 3: A few weeks earlier, he'd suffered a heart attack. Was
Speaker 3: back at the upscale Clinical Hospital for chekhups. Maganov was
Speaker 3: on the sixth floor on his own, smoking a cigarette
Speaker 3: out the window. This is when the depression hit. He
Speaker 3: felt sad, he felt despair. At that moment, he decided
Speaker 3: he couldn't go on any longer. Raval Maganov pulled himself
Speaker 3: up onto the frame of the window.
Speaker 1: He looked down.
Speaker 3: It was around seventy feet to the tarmac. Almost certain death.
Speaker 1: This was it.
Speaker 3: Maganov jumped, His body flailed as he fell six stories.
Speaker 3: He hit the ground hard, his body mangled. Raval Maganov
Speaker 3: was discovered and taken back into the hospital by emergency staff,
Speaker 3: where he was soon pronounced dead. That's the official story.
Speaker 3: Maganov was the chairman of Luke Oil, the largest private
Speaker 3: company in Russia and the country's second largest energy company
Speaker 3: behind Gazprom. Luke Oil quickly released a statement about Maganov's suicide,
Speaker 3: saying quote, we deeply regret to announce that Raval Maganov,
Speaker 3: chairman of Lucil Board of Directors, passed away following a
Speaker 3: severe illness. Raval Maganov immensely contributed to the development of
Speaker 3: not only the company, but of the entire Russian oil
Speaker 3: and gas sector. Thanks to Raval Maganov's managerial talent, Luke
Speaker 3: Oil evolved from a small oil production group to one
Speaker 3: of the world's leading energy companies in next to no time.
Speaker 3: It increased its oil and gas production manifold developed from
Speaker 3: scratch new oil and gas provinces in the Caspian and
Speaker 3: Baltic Seas, successfully launched super viscous oil projects in the
Speaker 3: Republic of Komi, introduced advanced technological solutions to support production
Speaker 3: and mature fields in West Siberia, and joined consortiums in
Speaker 3: the most promising oil regions of the world.
Speaker 1: Ends quote.
Speaker 3: Clearly, Maganov was a big noise in Russia. He was
Speaker 3: an oligarch who joined Luke Coyle back in nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: one when it first began to take four and now,
Speaker 3: as Luke Oyle said, he died of a severe illness,
Speaker 3: that illness being his body hitting the ground at a
Speaker 3: speed of about six meters per second. His death was
Speaker 3: officially categorized as a suicide in Russian state media. Maganov's
Speaker 3: family disagreed on They said there's no way he'd kill himself.
Speaker 3: His friend said it was very unlikely. Maganov was not
Speaker 3: that guy, nor was he even depressed. Maybe then the
Speaker 3: official line on what happened to Maganov is inaccurate. Maybe
Speaker 3: he acts a denseally, fell out of the window, or
Speaker 3: maybe he was pushed. The Moscow Central Clinical Hospital is
Speaker 3: for rich Russian high flyers like Maganov. It's the place
Speaker 3: where Mikayle Gorbachev died, the final leader of the Soviet Union.
Speaker 3: It's known for having Russia's political and business elite amongst
Speaker 3: its patients. Top of the range equipment and healthcare, always cleanliness,
Speaker 3: security CCTV cameras. Perhaps those would show what really happened
Speaker 3: to Maganov. Probably they would if they were working. Just
Speaker 3: so happens that the day Maganov fell to his death,
Speaker 3: the security cameras were offline due to repairs. We'll get
Speaker 3: into that, but first lou Coyle. We first mentioned this
Speaker 3: company in episode three. Alexander Sabotchin was a member of
Speaker 3: the board at Louke Coyle. He died four months before
Speaker 3: rather Maganov, after being poisoned with frog venom during a
Speaker 3: shamanic ritual. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 3: Lukoil, the largest private company in Russia, produces more than
Speaker 3: two percent of all the world's oil. To give you
Speaker 3: an idea of what a big deal that is, bear
Speaker 3: in mind that in twenty twenty two America alone consumed
Speaker 3: an average of twenty million barrels of petroleum every single day.
Speaker 3: To globally account for more than two percent is absolutely enormous.
Speaker 3: Lukoil makes a lot of money. Russian oligarch Vjit Alekporov,
Speaker 3: who worked with Maganov, was the Lukoil president from nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety three until twenty twenty two, when he resigned after
Speaker 3: he was sanctioned by the West due to Russia's invasion
Speaker 3: of Ukraine. The twenty eight point three percent steak of
Speaker 3: Lukoil Alekproov is around the fifth richest man in Russia.
Speaker 3: That's how much money Luke Oil makes. Rival Maganov's official
Speaker 3: net worth before he died was an estimated half a
Speaker 3: billion dollars, and his business empire is sometimes referred to
Speaker 3: as the Maganov dynasty. He began working at Luke Oil
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety one, when the company first formed and
Speaker 3: grew in the wild aftermath of the collapse of the
Speaker 3: Soviet Union. Some say that Maganov started working there in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety three, but actually it was ninety one when
Speaker 3: it first began. Luke Oil was founded as an oil
Speaker 3: group when merging three other existing oil companies lang past Nefgas,
Speaker 3: Urine Nefgas and kugualmin Nef Gas. Luk Luke Oyle within
Speaker 3: two years of its creation luke Co Oil was incorporated
Speaker 3: into a public joint stock company and ranked within the
Speaker 3: top three global leaders of oil production. The get go,
Speaker 3: luke Oyl was doing big busysiness. By nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 3: America's then big time independent petroleum company Arco were interested
Speaker 3: in luke Coil. Of course, where there's oil, there's Americans.
Speaker 3: Urco became a major shareholder in Lucyl and a dedicated
Speaker 3: strategic partner. This gave Lucoyle a new level of legitimacy
Speaker 3: on the world stage when it came to intercontinental profits expansion.
Speaker 3: At the turn of the millennium, luc Oil discovered a
Speaker 3: new oil and gas area in the Caspian Sea. At
Speaker 3: this point they entered Fortunes at Global five hundred, listed
Speaker 3: as one of the most lucrative companies in the entire world.
Speaker 3: They began doing more business with the US, entering the
Speaker 3: American retail petroleum market. From then on, Lucoyl was on
Speaker 3: the up and up. They acquired new oil refineries, expanded
Speaker 3: sales in Europe, had put in publicly toursed several of
Speaker 3: their facilities, expanded into Africa and the Middle East, got
Speaker 3: a world record for horizontal drilling capacity took part in
Speaker 3: un sponsored business events and made all the top people
Speaker 3: involved filthy rich. Everything was going great, that is until
Speaker 3: Putin launched Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine on February
Speaker 3: twenty fourth, twenty twenty two. Russian troops across the borders,
Speaker 3: Russian fighter jets bombed the cities, and Russian media blamed
Speaker 3: it all on Ukraine. Outside of those bubbles, though the
Speaker 3: writing was on the wall, it was clear whatever issues
Speaker 3: were going on between each country and their various alliances
Speaker 3: became irrelevant. Russia launched an imperialist assault on a sovereign
Speaker 3: country in Europe. Putin himself even confirmed this, stating publicly
Speaker 3: on Russian TV that he doesn't recognize the existence of
Speaker 3: Ukraine and he dismissed its long history. He wants to
Speaker 3: take over make Ukraine Russian, and that's that. Whilst many
Speaker 3: Western countries, mainly America, are of course guilty of doing
Speaker 3: the exact same thing all across the world, Russia doesn't
Speaker 3: get a pass, not in the world stage where it
Speaker 3: actually matters anyway. Plenty of over zealous political types might
Speaker 3: tell you it wasn't really their fault, but let's be honest.
Speaker 3: In the real world, everyone can see what's happening. This
Speaker 3: is something Luke Quil's board of members clearly understood very
Speaker 3: early on. As we mentioned in episode three, the high
Speaker 3: rollers at Luke Coyle Maganov, especially as chairman, took the
Speaker 3: risk to speak out publicly against Putin. If you remember,
Speaker 3: they released an official Luke Oyl's statement shortly after the invasion, saying, quote,
Speaker 3: the Board of Directors of Lukeoyl expresses its deepest concerns
Speaker 3: about the tragic events in Ukraine, calling for the soonest
Speaker 3: termination of the armed conflict. We express our sincere empathy
Speaker 3: for all victims who are affected by this tragedy. We
Speaker 3: strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems
Speaker 3: through serious negotiations and diplomacy. In its activities, Luke Oyl
Speaker 3: aspires to contribute to peace, international relations and humanitarian ties.
Speaker 1: Ends quote.
Speaker 3: In any properly free society, public criticism of a war
Speaker 3: is of course accepted without punishment, but in Russia, with
Speaker 3: increasing state authoritarianism, speaking out can get you in bit trouble.
Speaker 3: To give some context to how seriously the state takes
Speaker 3: opposition to its invasion of Ukraine, consider this you could
Speaker 3: get up to fifteen years in prison in Russia for
Speaker 3: taking part in organized public protests against the war. That's
Speaker 3: not for rioting, looting, or violence. That's just for organizing
Speaker 3: a peaceful protest in favor of removing Russian troops from
Speaker 3: Ukrainian territory. In fact, on April twenty first, over one
Speaker 3: than three hundred citizens were arrested in Russia for gathering
Speaker 3: in the streets to demonstrate their opposition to the war.
Speaker 3: Many were even beaten. So for a heavyweight company like
Speaker 3: Lukoyle to speak out against the invasion was likely seen
Speaker 3: as some kind of challenge to his power in the
Speaker 3: eyes of Putin. As is well documented, his way of
Speaker 3: ruling Russia is to bulldoze any anyone who comes up
Speaker 3: against him. Some theorize that's what happened to Raval Maganov.
Speaker 3: Maganov was directly familiar with Putin. He'd been given a
Speaker 3: national award by him personally in twenty nineteen for outstanding
Speaker 3: service to Russia. Under Maganov's guidance, Luke Oil had made
Speaker 3: the Kremlin consistently huge amounts of money in tax and
Speaker 3: had made Russia an all star global player in the
Speaker 3: world's oil and gas industries. He advised the Russian Energy
Speaker 3: Ministry before OPEC meetings and was generally at the top
Speaker 3: of his game for at least thirty years. Maganov was
Speaker 3: not an easy guy to replace, So that begs the question.
Speaker 3: Did the louk Oyl statement against Russia's war on Ukraine
Speaker 3: anger Putin enough to get Maganov killed? To me, that
Speaker 3: sounds a little excessive. But to get a better idea
Speaker 3: of how oligar key can affec your health, I spoke
Speaker 3: to a man who claims to be in these exact crossheads.
Speaker 2: Well, my conflict was with the oligarchs that are close
Speaker 2: to Putting, have been has been developing over quite some time.
Speaker 2: Now they to assassinate.
Speaker 3: Me, that's I got Sychev speaking through an interpreter. Saichev
Speaker 3: is a multi millionaire businessman from Russia. He doesn't like Putin.
Speaker 3: I got Sychev claims that people associated with Russia's oligarchy
Speaker 3: have tried to kill him several times. He says that
Speaker 3: this is because of a court battle he's involved in
Speaker 3: against a Putin ally who didn't pay him the full
Speaker 3: stake of shares he owned in Russian chemical company foss Agro.
Speaker 3: It's a bit complicated. The case itself is kind of
Speaker 3: irrelevant to us. But basically, Saychev says he's been targeted
Speaker 3: for assassination, are the same sorts of groups who would
Speaker 3: in theory target someone like raval Aagonov.
Speaker 2: Quite recently, I put an information that they actually ordered
Speaker 2: my assassination. I started receiving emails from a known person
Speaker 2: where he says that they ordered this assassination because of
Speaker 2: the court case that is being processed. Two days ago,
Speaker 2: I was in the United Kingdom and provided this information
Speaker 2: to the local police and they started a criminal investigation
Speaker 2: related to that.
Speaker 3: Right, So who is after you exactly?
Speaker 1: Do you think?
Speaker 2: Well, I would say that it's the putting who is
Speaker 2: after me, but his close friends instead. In terms of Putting,
Speaker 2: he might be aware of me because in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: when I left Russia, I was supporting Navayli and I
Speaker 2: was one of the major sponsors who mentioned this information publicly.
Speaker 3: Alexi Novealni is an opposition leader in Russia. Novalni is
Speaker 3: currently in prison in Russia, accused of violating his parole
Speaker 3: for a previous charge of embezzlement, which is believed to
Speaker 3: be politically motivated. His imprisonment came after he was poisoned
Speaker 3: with neuvechok in twenty twenty and hospitalized in Germany. Anyway,
Speaker 3: back to Saichev, obviously you have first hand experience in
Speaker 3: this world. Just from your point of view, can you
Speaker 3: give us an idea of how powerful the Oligachs are
Speaker 3: in Russia?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 2: They have quite weak influence overputting the more his hostages,
Speaker 2: so to say, because they made their fortune by working
Speaker 2: and being close to him. Now when most of them
Speaker 2: are under sanctions, they have no other choice than to
Speaker 2: support him demonstratively.
Speaker 3: So in some of these cases that we've been looking at,
Speaker 3: in most of them, to be honest, they regarding either
Speaker 3: Russian Oligachs or very rich Russian businessmen with significant influence
Speaker 3: in various industries, often connected to the Kremlin, either directly
Speaker 3: or otherwise. To be honest, it's very fishy the death,
Speaker 3: to say the least, and it definitely opens up the
Speaker 3: possibility to think, well, maybe these people are being murdered.
Speaker 3: Do you think that, say someone on a you know,
Speaker 3: a very high level oligarch type, what do you think
Speaker 3: to that is that possibility? Is that something that can
Speaker 3: happen just you know from your own personal point of view.
Speaker 2: Yes, I am aware of those deaths, and I don't
Speaker 2: think they have been accidents. And from what I know,
Speaker 2: which is like publicly available information, from my conversation with
Speaker 2: some of my accordancies, which is the inside information, I
Speaker 2: think they've been killed because they had financial information related
Speaker 2: to Putting, especially it related to those people who are
Speaker 2: who grew connected with the state related companies like Gaspromo notex.
Speaker 3: Do you do you think there's any possibility that this
Speaker 3: could be linked to the war in Ukraine. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's mostly happened in this if well, these people
Speaker 3: have died in a very short amount of time, and
Speaker 3: in that short amount of time it kind of started
Speaker 3: ticking up like an optic in these mysterious deaths of
Speaker 3: these rich Russian tycoons when the Ukraine War started. So
Speaker 3: I don't know. Do you think that there's any It's
Speaker 3: possible there's a connection to the wa there.
Speaker 2: I suppose it may be connected to war because Putting
Speaker 2: at the moment is under a very close monitor from
Speaker 2: the public worldwide, and he attempts to hide his financial schemes.
Speaker 2: It was very well known before the war that he
Speaker 2: had a widespread offshore accounts that he used to finance
Speaker 2: his own and his family's personal goals. Well, I can
Speaker 2: give you an example of which is based on my
Speaker 2: own story with my polygarchs, what financial relationships they has
Speaker 2: that connects them to the current Russian government. Well, one
Speaker 2: of the examples would be related to for Sacro and
Speaker 2: its shareholders. Among their members, that is the one person
Speaker 2: named Litvinenka, who is Puting's friends friend, and he owns
Speaker 2: twenty percent shares of for Sagro, which is around three
Speaker 2: billion dollars and has been proven by journalists investigations that
Speaker 2: this was a priv to Putting when he received that
Speaker 2: amount of shares.
Speaker 3: So what side Chev is saying here is that the
Speaker 3: company he was involved with, which is why allegedly these
Speaker 3: oligarchs are trying to get him killed. He's saying that
Speaker 3: someone associated with that company's someone that has shares in it,
Speaker 3: received three billion dollars. But actually that wasn't really for him.
Speaker 3: That was a bribe, that was something to give over
Speaker 3: to Putin, And perhaps this is how Putin makes his money.
Speaker 3: As we've spoken about already in this series, Putin is
Speaker 3: believed to be worth billions and that's definitely not from
Speaker 3: the money he makes as the President of Russia, not
Speaker 3: officially anyway. I asked Sichev how these oligarchs might assemble
Speaker 3: teams to go out and actually kill people if it's
Speaker 3: not directly from the Kremlin itself.
Speaker 2: Well, the expression is pretty simple. They have a number
Speaker 2: of executors who specialize in certain ways of staging those
Speaker 2: assassinations and taking for example, the poisoning of Navali or
Speaker 2: where special agencies tried to poison him. They used pretty
Speaker 2: rude or crude methods, and they've made a lot of
Speaker 2: mistakes that allowed to easily identify them pretty civil explanations
Speaker 2: because this whole system is degrading and they're no longer
Speaker 2: competent to what they do.
Speaker 3: Do you think it's possible that maybe some of these
Speaker 3: people are being killed and that it's some kind of
Speaker 3: message to be sent out, Because there's a lot of
Speaker 3: people that have died in a short space of time
Speaker 3: that are all in similar kind of circuits, similar communities.
Speaker 3: Maybe there's a message being sent here.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a pretty plausible reason that they
Speaker 2: wanted to send a message. I think I will agree
Speaker 2: with you so I go A.
Speaker 3: Saichev, a Russian tycoon involved with the company that's allegedly
Speaker 3: linked to Kremlin oligarchy, thinks it's quite possible that these
Speaker 3: mysterious deaths are murders. Maybe, or maybe it's all a
Speaker 3: coincidence sculpted into a theory by the idea of the
Speaker 3: Russian boog This is definitely something that we have to
Speaker 3: take into account when looking at these strange deaths. We
Speaker 3: don't know I for certain what's going on. What I
Speaker 3: do know, though, is that it's almost too perfect that
Speaker 3: the security cameras were off the day Raval Maganov fell
Speaker 3: to his death. The official line is that the cameras
Speaker 3: were down to be repaired. Now. To be fair, CCTV
Speaker 3: can be temperamental. However, the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital is
Speaker 3: health care for the elites. It's unlikely they have low
Speaker 3: quality security equipment. Either way, things can still break. Perhaps
Speaker 3: Maganov was depressed and just happened to commit suicide at
Speaker 3: the hospital, of all places, on the same day the
Speaker 3: cameras were down. Russian media said had been taken antidepressants
Speaker 3: after all, although Maganov's family refute this, saying that no,
Speaker 3: that is not true. He wasn't taken a depressants. As
Speaker 3: you can see, there are many inconsistencies and coincidences surrounding
Speaker 3: his death. Oh yeah, and there's another interesting tourn of
Speaker 3: information that we haven't mentioned yet. Get this, There was
Speaker 3: a special visitor at the hospital the very same day
Speaker 3: that Maganov fell to his death. Pooting, the President of Russia,
Speaker 3: was at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital on September one,
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two. The same day arrival, Maganov hit the
Speaker 3: tarmac from seventy feet.
Speaker 1: Surgery explains.
Speaker 4: This is around the time when Korbachev died, so the
Speaker 4: last USSR leader before it is old and basically he
Speaker 4: was visiting his open casket on September first, he like
Speaker 4: already passed away, and this was like, I guess the
Speaker 4: co media visit just to show that he's like paying
Speaker 4: respect or whatever. He was known to not like him
Speaker 4: because he kind of blamed them for the fall of
Speaker 4: the Soviet Union, so I guess him visiting was kind
Speaker 4: of a big deal. He said he won't visit the
Speaker 4: actual memorial service, so he just kind of visited the hospital.
Speaker 4: But this is the same moscue of Central Hospital where
Speaker 4: macgana was staying and that was the same day that
Speaker 4: mcganna died, right for all, out of window.
Speaker 1: Typical.
Speaker 4: But it's just interesting that same day that Putin visits,
Speaker 4: just news that Maganav dies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean, okay, yeah, Grubachev died I think
Speaker 3: August thirtieth. Two days later Putin went to see his
Speaker 3: casket or I guess, like maybe you can afford for
Speaker 3: two days. But it seemed like a crazy coincidence to
Speaker 3: me that the guy that Maganov's company basically spoke out
Speaker 3: against four months prior just happens to be that the
Speaker 3: same day he jumps out the window.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean like it just sounds like a movie,
Speaker 4: you know, to say, like the truth is more unbelievable
Speaker 4: than like a story, and who would have thought, right,
Speaker 4: It's like putting his visits and then this guy falls
Speaker 4: out of the window. It's almost like a mafia mob
Speaker 4: movie where the dawn visits. I think you can see
Speaker 4: it play out, you know, you can see it play
Speaker 4: out again to the point where it's almost absurd.
Speaker 1: But then it's like maybe it is the truth.
Speaker 4: You know, I was reading a bit into it, and like,
Speaker 4: you know, he was in charge of the coil, and
Speaker 4: apparently Rosnieft was looking to acquire Locoil because it's again
Speaker 4: it's like very deep connections to the States, but not
Speaker 4: exactly owned by the state.
Speaker 1: And it looks like thecoil was going to be absorb
Speaker 1: by Rose.
Speaker 4: And then it for one under sender never worked out
Speaker 4: and some like this is all rumors, right, so I
Speaker 4: can't really say for sure, but apparently Locoil was kind
Speaker 4: of discussing merging with them, but apparently like the management
Speaker 4: of the coil was kind of opposed to it. What
Speaker 4: was NIFT is again state connected energy company, massive, massive
Speaker 4: corporations working in the energy industry, you know, basically the
Speaker 4: backbone of Russia's economy.
Speaker 1: There's so many of them.
Speaker 4: Even Magando's brother was on another LNG company working with
Speaker 4: another one.
Speaker 1: He was like the general director.
Speaker 4: It's all really like intermain Culture's a bunch of companies,
Speaker 4: billions of dollars and it's basically just like shares of
Speaker 4: the market, right, They're all kind of doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: They just have maybe various.
Speaker 4: Fields or areas where they operate out of, but they're
Speaker 4: basically doing the same thing. And the Russian government is
Speaker 4: trying to control of them essentially, like there's no reason
Speaker 4: for them to have private companies. They just want to
Speaker 4: be the ones running them.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, yeah, I mean, okay, Lucayle originally released the
Speaker 3: statement at the start of the war, presumably I don't
Speaker 3: think they cared about Ukraine and they were like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: this is going to affect our money. Oh and if
Speaker 3: you look at the history of lu Coal, they have
Speaker 3: tons and tons of cooperation with you know, Western companies,
Speaker 3: with America specifically, so it would make sense that they
Speaker 3: would try and insulate themselves a little bit from what
Speaker 3: the state was doing. But then when you look at
Speaker 3: the records, the sales records, Luke Coal actually made like
Speaker 3: record profits after the invasion. Okay, at the start it
Speaker 3: looked rocky, but then actually it worked out that they
Speaker 3: ended up making a lot of money. The war was
Speaker 3: actually kind of grows but the war was good for
Speaker 3: them financially, so they kind of, you know, they maybe
Speaker 3: mispredicted what would happen there. And it looks like Coil
Speaker 3: is actually making a lot of money via countries that
Speaker 3: are speaking out against Russia saying they're going to sanction them.
Speaker 3: But actually Louke Coil is operating refineries in these countries,
Speaker 3: are making a lot of money there, and I am thinking, well,
Speaker 3: it would make sense then that the Russian government, perhaps
Speaker 3: to kind of weave that way around the sanctions, would
Speaker 3: want would then want to acquire Luke Cole because, like
Speaker 3: I said, Louke Coil is actually still making a hell
Speaker 3: of a lot of money in amongst all of this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like they were created and they operate out of Russia,
Speaker 4: but they have facilities around. I know they have one
Speaker 4: in Italy for sure. I know they're like kind of
Speaker 4: spread throughout Western throughout the West and Western Europe. Yeah,
Speaker 4: for sure. You know, like they made the statement and
Speaker 4: now you have this as the West you can be like, oh,
Speaker 4: but look.
Speaker 1: They're they're against it. You know.
Speaker 4: I think it's obviously like a face saving kind of statement,
Speaker 4: but I could see how it kind of a fan
Speaker 4: put in or kind of go against the state message
Speaker 4: and stuff, kind of like you're making us look bad,
Speaker 4: you know, Whereas they're doing this to save their business
Speaker 4: basically because maybe compared to other companies, they have much
Speaker 4: more stake in the West and you know, potentially losing
Speaker 4: their facilities refineries could really hamper the business the worst started.
Speaker 4: They probably lost some money through the like the first
Speaker 4: month or so of like companies not knowing what to
Speaker 4: do the West not knowing what to do, like where
Speaker 4: the sanctions were just coming in.
Speaker 1: But then the you.
Speaker 4: Know, need for gas oil energy continued anyways, and I'm
Speaker 4: guessing business once as usual. You know, prices were all
Speaker 4: over the place, so it's probably selling it a good price.
Speaker 4: And yeah, you know, having that foot in the West
Speaker 4: and being able to sell through that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure being able to.
Speaker 4: Buy things through the company would be a great thing
Speaker 4: for POUSI.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or one last things, do we know do we
Speaker 3: know if Putium was at the hospital the same time
Speaker 3: the Maganov died.
Speaker 4: So it's basically it's more like date wise. I can't
Speaker 4: say by the hour I believe mcgana died. I believe
Speaker 4: they found him in like the afternoon, and Putin was
Speaker 4: there like during the day, so it's possible. Yeah, Like
Speaker 4: from what I understand, Mcgana died closer to like nighttime.
Speaker 4: Putting visited during the day, so like Magana would have
Speaker 4: been alive when Putting visited, cameras were off, so we
Speaker 4: don't know if maybe he was visited.
Speaker 1: We don't know how he fell.
Speaker 3: It's weird as well to me that, Okay, the cameras
Speaker 3: were off od anyway when this happens. But it's odd
Speaker 3: to me that security cameras would not be working on
Speaker 3: the day the president visits. You would think they would
Speaker 3: want everything running. You would think that the security around
Speaker 3: Putin would be like, right, we need to make sure
Speaker 3: that those cameras are on, you know, just in case
Speaker 3: something happens, I e. All of the checks that these
Speaker 3: kind of people make, make sure there's no assassination attempts,
Speaker 3: that kind of thing. It seems weird enough that they
Speaker 3: weren't on, but then also weird to me that they
Speaker 3: would be not working on the day Putin visits. I mean,
Speaker 3: stranger things happen, but I don't know, it just seems
Speaker 3: so perfect.
Speaker 4: I think the official line is under repairs, So I mean,
Speaker 4: you can, you know, always be under repairs if you
Speaker 4: need to be. I'm sure it's not difficult to make
Speaker 4: up a reason and just you know, be like, oh,
Speaker 4: we're we have to fix this thing. Let's turn off
Speaker 4: the cameras for a day, and yeah, you're right, Like
Speaker 4: if the big boss is visiting, you probably you know,
Speaker 4: if you're actually repairing stuff, you probably don't want it
Speaker 4: to look bad. Be like, oh, yeah, the you know,
Speaker 4: the security system is down and we have no we're
Speaker 4: completely blind.
Speaker 1: Like, I'm sure it would look bad. I wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to be the guy like, hey, by the.
Speaker 4: Way, Putin's you don't know security detail, just say, you know,
Speaker 4: all the cameras are effected, right, But on the other hand,
Speaker 4: I kind of can't see the incompetence and just be like,
Speaker 4: you know what, these cameras are here just for looks.
Speaker 4: They that were worked to beget with Let's say they
Speaker 4: were under repairs, you know what I mean. So it's
Speaker 4: like there's a lot of possibilities. I mean, look at astin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, funny that, yeah, yeah, I don't think it's a stretch,
Speaker 1: you know, like to go there.
Speaker 4: Again, we don't have any evidence to back it up,
Speaker 4: but I think anybody can speculate and kind of wonder
Speaker 4: just how much of a coincidence these things are.
Speaker 3: So again, Raval Maganov falls to his death at the
Speaker 3: hospital the same day Putin visits to apparently pay his
Speaker 3: respects to a dead Gorbachev. Maganov is the chairman of
Speaker 3: a Russian mega corporation that publicly criticized Putin's career defining
Speaker 3: invasion of Ukraine. Keep that in mind when listening to
Speaker 3: something I go Saychev said that I think is relevant
Speaker 3: to this death. Now heads up, I didn't mention Maganov
Speaker 3: to Sychev at all when.
Speaker 2: They're talking about gars. It would separate them into two
Speaker 2: distinct groups. First, from one is a close circle, so
Speaker 2: to say, and they have some limited influence over Putting
Speaker 2: because they are not only connected with him financially, but
Speaker 2: they also have some friendship and the out circle or
Speaker 2: all the other regards, they might be equally rich, but
Speaker 2: they have no personal connections with Footing. They use the
Speaker 2: influence when there are state related decisions are to be made,
Speaker 2: but they use this influence to pursue their own goals.
Speaker 3: It's obvious to me at least that Raval Maganov and
Speaker 3: the rest of the Looke Oil board members probably didn't
Speaker 3: care much about the invasion of Ukraine outside of how
Speaker 3: it could damage their profit margins. Of the rule that
Speaker 3: accepted awards from Putin himself, and they pretty much gone
Speaker 3: along with everything else he's done to the country. So
Speaker 3: the statement they made could be seen as business leaders
Speaker 3: trying to use their influence to save face amongst their
Speaker 3: Western business partners. Now, if Putin is as vindictive and
Speaker 3: callous as evidence suggests he is, maybe the death of
Speaker 3: Maganov was actually a killing that was made personal. Obviously,
Speaker 3: Putin didn't push him out that window himself, but perhaps
Speaker 3: there was something symbolic about him being at the same
Speaker 3: place on the same day that Maganov went out the
Speaker 3: window and fell to his death. Maybe this was revenge,
Speaker 3: or maybe Maganov was depressed and chose his hospital visit
Speaker 3: to commit suicide on a day that the security cameras
Speaker 3: just happened to be off, and the same day the
Speaker 3: president he'd pissed off also happened to visit.
Speaker 1: Who knows?
Speaker 3: Sad Oligarch is a H eleven production for Cool Zone
Speaker 3: Media and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced, researched, and edited by me
Speaker 3: Jake Hanrahan and Sergei Slipchenkok co produced by Sophie Lichtman.
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