Big oil boss dies of 'fall from hospital window', six months after criticising Ukraine invasion

Ravil Maganov of Lukoul with Vladmir Putin. Maganov is dead, six months after the company's board released a statement calling for a speedy end to the war in Ukraine. Photo / Kremlin.ru

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The chair of oil major Lukoil, one of the few Russian companies to criticise the invasion of Ukraine, has died after falling out of a hospital window in Moscow, according to Russian media.

Ravil Maganov, one of the longest-serving executives at Russia's second-largest oil producer, died six months after the company's board released a statement calling for a speedy end to the conflict.

Russian state media, citing anonymous law enforcement sources, said Maganov's death was being treated as suicide.

Mash, a media outlet with close ties to Russia's police, said Maganov was being treated for heart problems and had also recently been diagnosed with depression.

Baza, another law enforcement-friendly news outlet, said Maganov fell from a balcony on a side of the hospital where repairs were taking place and suggested he could have slipped while going out for a smoke. Police found a pack of cigarettes in Maganov's ward, Baza reported.

Maganov, 67, worked at Lukoil for nearly 30 years and became chair in 2020.

Ravil Maganov of Lukoul with Vladmir Putin. Maganov is dead, six months after the company's board released a statement calling for a speedy end to the war in Ukraine. Photo / Kremlin.ru

He was being treated at Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, a facility operated by Russia's presidential property management department and normally reserved for the elite.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, died at the same hospital on Tuesday following a long illness.

Lukoil was founded from state oil assets during the break-up of the Soviet Union by Vagit Alekperov, a former Soviet deputy energy minister. It is one of the few major energy companies in Moscow not under the control of the state.

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom head Alexei Miller, left, and Lukoil's Vagit Alekperov on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. Photo / AP

Alekperov resigned from the company in April after he was hit with sanctions by the UK and Australia.

In March, Lukoil's board put out a statement expressing its "deepest concerns about the tragic events in Ukraine" and "sincere empathy for all victims, who are affected by this tragedy".

Though cautious — Lukoil's board refrained from criticising president Vladimir Putin personally or blaming Russia for invading Ukraine — the call to end the war was rare among Russian corporates, most of which continue to maintain an awkward silence.

Lukoil on Thursday confirmed Maganov's death but did not comment on how he died.

"We deeply regret to announce that Ravil Maganov, chairman of Lukoil board of directors, passed away following a severe illness," it said in a statement.

"Ravil Maganov immensely contributed to the development of not only the company, but of the entire Russian oil and gas sector."

Maganov's brother, Nail, is chief executive of another major Russian oil producer, Tatneft.

Executives dead in strange circumstances

Several mid-ranking Russian energy executives have died in unusual circumstances since the war broke out.

A day after the full-scale invasion in February, Alexander Tyulyakov, a deputy head of gas monopoly Gazprom's treasury, was found dead in the garage of his home in Leninsky, an elite St Petersburg suburb.

The working theory of investigators was that Tyulyakov's death was the second suicide in the same suburb in less than a month, after Leonid Shulman, an executive at Gazprom's transport subsidiary, was found dead in his bathroom in late January.

In July, police found Yuri Voronov, the head of a shipping company that contracts for Gazprom, dead in a swimming pool at his home in the same suburb near St Petersburg from a gunshot wound to the head.

Russian media linked Voronov's death to a business dispute and said Shulman was depressed after splitting up with his wife and suffering a serious leg injury.

In April, former Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev, his wife and 13-year-old daughter were found shot dead in their Moscow flat.

Police said Avayev probably killed his family in a murder-suicide but have not named a possible motive.

Just a day later, Sergei Protosenya, a former senior executive at gas producer Novatek, was found hanged in his villa in Spain alongside his wife and teenage daughter, who had been stabbed to death.

'Shaman' claims

Police also concluded Protosenya killed his family before hanging himself, according to Spanish media, despite finding no suicide note or fingerprints on the murder weapons. Protosenya's son later said he believed his father was murdered.

Novatek also appeared to cast doubt on the police findings by saying "speculations" had emerged in the media about the topic but the company was convinced these speculations bore "no relation to reality".

In May, a former Lukoil executive, Alexander Subbotin, died of a heart attack at a rented house in a downscale area in Moscow's outskirts, according to investigators.

Mash reported that the house belonged to a shaman and his wife who practised esoteric medicine with toad venom, cockerel blood and "the help of spirits".

The outlet claimed Subbotin had visited the couple "regularly" and was there for a seance to cure him from a hangover. When Subbotin suddenly fell ill, the shaman gave him a valerian root tranquilliser and left him in a basement instead of calling an ambulance, it said.

-By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya and Max Seddon in Riga

WHERE TO GET HELP

• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7)
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