Toad poison, cause of death of Subbotin, the seventh Russian oligarch to die this year

Alexander Subbotin is he seventh Russian oligarch to die in mysterious circumstances so far this year and in the context of the war in Ukraine. For some it is pure coincidence, for many, a pattern that seeks to eliminate rivals and enemies either in the commercial field or in the field of politics. Be that as it may, Subbotin, who died this Sunday, had been manager of the large Russian private oil company Lukoil and later became the owner of New Transport Company (NTK) on the shores of the Gulf of Finland.

The millionaire was found dead in the house of the shaman Aleksei Pindyurin, also known as “Shaman Magua”, in Mytishchi, northwest of Moscow. A Russian source told the TASS agency that Subbotin went to this healer’s home “in a state of alcoholic intoxication and after consuming drugs” with the intention of seeking relief to make his hangover more bearable. The Russian media have published some details. Apparently, the shaman offered his clients a treatment with toad poison. In their rituals, the couple summoned the spirits and sacrificed animals to bathe their clients in rooster blood.

Subbotin would have taken some substance obtained from poisonous toads, but began to feel ill during the ritual. The shaman and his wife decided not to call the ambulance and instead preferred to treat him with the tranquilizer Corvalol. Some time later they moved him to the basement of the home where he died of a heart attack.

Subbotin is the seventh Russian millionaire to have died since January. On April 19, the former genere of the Russian energy giant Novatek, Sergey Protosenya, He was found hanged in the garden of his house in Lloret de Mar after allegedly killing his wife and daughter with an axe. Surprisingly, a day before, Vladislav Avaev, former Kremlin official and former Vice President of Gazprombank, appeared lifeless in a luxury apartment in Moscow along with the bodies of his wife and 13-year-old daughter, whom he allegedly killed. The macabre scene was discovered by his eldest daughter.

In March, the billionaire Vasily Melnikov, who worked for the medical firm MedStorm, was found dead in his luxury apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. To the list must be added the death of Michael Watford, a Ukrainian-born oligarch, who died on February 28 at his home in Surrey, UK. Police initially said they found nothing suspicious in the house.

three days before, Alexander Tyulyakovwho worked for the Russian energy giant Gazpromwas found dead in a country house near Saint Petersburg on February 25 by his lover, according to the British press.

In January it was Leonid Shulman, 60-year-old head of the transport service of the gas company Gazprom, who allegedly died in the bathroom of a country house in the region of Leningrad. On this occasion, a letter appeared in which the deceased acknowledged that he had committed suicide, although there are doubts that the note was not written by him.