Within two days of each other, two Russian oligarchs – both linked to giant Russian gas companies – apparently murdered their wives and daughters before killing themselves.
The evidence supporting these theories is muddled by the fact that the events happened so close together, but for now both are believed by police to be cases of murder-suicide.
On Monday, 51-year-old former Kremlin official and Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev was found dead in his luxury Moscow apartment alongside the bodies of his wife and 13-year-old daughter.
The apartment was locked from the inside, and a pistol was found in Avaev’s hands, leading investigators to explore the theory that Avaev shot his wife and his 13-year-old daughter before killing himself.
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Privately-owned Gazprombank is the third-largest bank by assets in Russia.
Then on Tuesday, three more bodies were found in a rented villa in Spain.
55-year-old millionaire Sergei Protosenya, former top manager of Russia’s energy giant Novatek, was found hanged in the garden of the villa in Lloret de Mar by Catalonian police, Spanish media reported, while his wife and daughter were found in their beds, dead from stab wounds.
According to local media outlets, an axe and a knife were found next to Protosenya’s body.
Police are investigating two possible scenarios: either the Russian oligarch killed his wife and daughter and then hanged himself, or the entire family was murdered and the crime scene was later staged to look like a murder-suicide.
Protosenya’s death was confirmed by Russian state media TASS on Thursday.
Novatek is the second largest company in Russia involved in the production of natural gas.
The first death linked to Russian energy giant Gazprom dates back to January before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
60-year-old Leonid Shulman, Gazprom’s top manager, was found dead in the bathroom of a cottage in the Leningrad region, next to a note that led police to believe he committed suicide, according to Gazeta and Russian media group RBC.
RBC reports that Gazprom Invest said it was investigating the death of Schulman. “Our colleague, the head of the transport service, Leonid Aleksandrovich Shulman, has passed away. The circumstances are being investigated,” the company said.
Additionally, on March 24, billionaire Vasily Melnikov was found dead in his luxury apartment along with his family members.
Reports mentioned the Melnikov—who worked for the medical firm MedStom—was found dead with his wife Galina and the couples’ two sons. All had died from stab wounds and the knives used for the murders were recovered at the crime scene.
The working theory is that Melnikov killed his 41-year-old wife then 10-year-old and 4-year-old children before killing himself. That version is not being easily believed by locals and the media.