FOUR suspicious suicides’ of senior Russian gas executives ‘connected to the Kremlin inner circle,’ prompts Putin to ‘purge’ worries

After four recent “suicides” of gas sector executives related to Vladimir Putin, fears that he is purging his inner circle have intensified.

Russian sources, including a former FSB colonel on the Telegram chat channel, have labelled all of the suicides as “suspect.”

Gennady Gudkov, writing on Mozhem Obyasnit (We Can Explain), said there were parallels in the deaths of top executives and their families from prominent gas corporations.

He asserted: “Don’t let the ‘rats’ out; they could start talking.

“If we already know that the dictatorship is ruthlessly eliminating its foes and opponents, why aren’t they pursuing individuals who are deemed traitors and have escaped the system?”

“Many [suspicious deaths] situations are like settling accounts.”

His remarks come after the murder by hanging in Spain of multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, a former vice chairman of Novotek, a Kremlin-linked corporation.

This followed when Protosenya reportedly stabbed his wife Natalia, 53, and their adolescent daughter Maria to death with a knife.

While affluent Vladislav Avayev, 51, an ex-vice-president of Gazprombank and former Kremlin official, was discovered dead in his exclusive Moscow home just a few days before.

He was discovered with his 47-year-old wife, Yelena, and their 13-year-old daughter, Maria.

Although authorities are currently looking into both incidents, there are suspicions that the deaths were staged as suicides.

According to Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit’ – which translates to We Can Explain – the two heinous crimes “are linked by the victims’ former places of employment – both are affiliated with Putin’s inner circle.”

This year, however, there have been two additional notable deaths in the gas business.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a top Gazprom finance and security executive at deputy general director level, was discovered by his girlfriend on February 25, the day after the Ukraine war began.

In his £500,000 mansion, he had a noose around his neck.

However, sources claim he was severely assaulted just before he “took his own life,” raising the possibility that he was under extreme duress.

Leonid Shulman, 60, chief of transport at Gazprom Invest, was discovered dead three weeks earlier in the same upscale Leninsky gated housing estate in the Leningrad area.

He was discovered in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor with several stab wounds.

The contents of a message were not revealed, and the Russian Investigative Committee apparently declined to talk about the fatalities.

On the bathtub, a knife was discovered, seemingly out of reach.

According to a Moscow newspaper, Sergei Protasenya had a “wonderful family,” according to a person close to him.

According to the Telegram group Toad and Viper, which covers corruption, the source does not think he killed his family.

It was found that he died in the middle of a court struggle over his shareholding in a Cyprus firm.

This comes amid a shake-up in Russian corporate ownership, with disguised and surrogate owners becoming more frequent as a result of Western sanctions that have frozen numerous riches.

Between 2002 to 2014, engineer and economist Protosenya served as chief accountant and then vice president of Novatek, Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer.

It is believed that he possessed a wealth of $440 million.

Novatek is co-owned by close Putin ally Gennady Timchenko, and the privileged behemoth was recently exempted from the Kremlin leader’s rule that only energy be traded.

Pyotr Kolbin, a Putin boyhood buddy and suspected “shadow keeper of Putin’s money,” is apparently related to the firm.

Gazprombank, Avayev’s former employer, is likewise linked to Putin’s inner circle, reportedly being exploited by the president, his relatives, and cronies.

Putin designated Gazprombank as the bank to accept ruble-denominated Western payments for gas.

Alayev, who allegedly held a KGB-FSB pistol discovered after the shooting, apparently had a joint venture firm with the daughter of a high-ranking Rostec executive, another Putin favourite.

UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES

“Under weird and similar circumstances, the families of two significant private firms managing Putin’s entourage’s money perished,” Mozhem Obyasnit explained.

Alayev “tortured his wife for many hours before murdering her – beating and shooting her in the legs and arms,” according to pro-Kremlin media, believing she was pregnant by another man.

He accused her of having an affair with his driver, who had “fled to Moldova,” and allegedly tried to get her to confess by shooting her in the limbs before murdering her.

“The announcement of her pregnancy was the final straw,” Mash said.