Russian millionaire linked to energy giant Gazprom found shot dead in pool

A multi-millionaire Russian businessman has been found shot dead at his mansion. He is the sixth wealthy businessman with links to the Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom to have been found dead in unnatural circumstances since the start of the year.

Yuri Voronov, 61, was head of a logistics company that held lucrative contracts with Gazprom in the Arctic, Metro reported on July 5.

His body was discovered floating in the swimming pool of his mansion in an elite village close to St Petersburg on July 4. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. A pistol is said to have been found nearby, with ‘several spent cartridges’ allegedly located at the bottom of the pool.

The Russian Investigative Committee is investigating his death which is believed to be linked to "a quarrel with partners".

His wife has reportedly told investigators that Voronov had believed he was being swindled by contractors and partners who had ‘behaved dishonourably’ for several weeks.

Voronov’s death follows reports of a number of other deaths at mansions in the elite suburb of St Petersburg fuelling rumours murders are being staged to look like suicides.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at the deputy general director level, was found dead in his mansion the day after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. His body was discovered in his £500,000 mansion in an apparent suicide but reports suggest he had been badly beaten shortly before he "took his own life".

Three weeks earlier, in the same gated community, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found stabbed to death his bathroom floor.

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin was found dead in May after "taking advice from shamans". The 42-year-old was former top manager at energy giant Lukoil and owner of a shipping company. One theory surrounding his death is that he was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.

In April, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13. He had high-level links to the leading Russian financial institution Gazprombank.

Several days later multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found dead in Spain after appearing to kill his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria. He was a former deputy chairman of Novatek, a company also closely linked to the Kremlin.

As with Mr Avayev, it is suggested Mr Protosenya’s death may have been an assassination staged to look like a murder-and-suicide.

Last week Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20. An immediate briefing to the media claimed Olga took her own life in a jealous rage after her husband, who made his fortune in mobile phones, said he was leaving her.