Russian oil firm boss dies ‘falling out of hospital window’ after criticism of Ukraine war

The chair of Russian energy firm Lukoil, which criticised Vladimir Putin’s invation of Ukraine, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, state media has reported.

Ravil Maganov, 67, was pronounced dead after plunging from a ward on the sixth floor of the Central Clinical Hospital where he was receiving treatment, according to Interfax.

Police are investigating the cause of his fall, which came months after Lukoil publicly opposed Mr Putin’s military assault on Ukraine.

It came as a team of UN nuclear inspectors crossed the front line into Russian-held territory in southern Ukraine to reach Europe's biggest atomic power plant, which is being held by Mr Putin’s forces.

After being delayed for several hours by shelling near the site, the team reached the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in a large convoy, with a heavy presence of Russian soldiers nearby.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of trying to sabotage the International Atomic Energy Agency’s mission to the plant, which sits on the southern bank of a huge reservoir on the Dnipro River that divides Russian and Ukrainian forces in central southern Ukraine. Since the early days of the conflict, the plant has been controlled by Russian troops but operated by Ukrainian staff.

Lukoil confirmed Maganov’s death in a statement, which said only that he had “passed away following a severe illness”. Russian state news agency Tass reported the death as suicide, and said that Maganov had been in hospital following a heart attack.

Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, is one of the few companies in the country to have come out in opposition to the war in Ukraine. In a statement in March, it said: “Calling for the soonest termination of the armed conflict, we express our sincere empathy for all victims who are affected by this tragedy. We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy.”

Maganov had worked in Lukoil since 1993, shortly after the company’s inception, and had overseen its refining, production and exploration, becoming chair in 2020. He is the latest high-profile figure to die in unusual circumstances.

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, a former board member of Lukoil who owned a shipping company, allegedly died after shaman practitioners treated him with toad venom to cure his hangover. Leonid Shulman, 60, who served as the head of the transport service at Gazprom Invest, was found dead on 30 January in the bathroom of a cottage north of St Petersburg.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, an executive at Gazprom, was found dead in the garage of his St Petersburg home on 25 February, the morning after Russia invaded Ukraine. Mikhail Watford, a 66-year-old Ukrainian-born businessman, was found dead at a property in Surrey on 28 February.

And Vladislav Avayev, a 51-year-old former vice-president at Gazprombank, was found dead in a Moscow apartment along with the bodies of his wife and daughter on 18 April.