What happened to Vladimir Nekrasov? The billionaire becomes the third executive at a Russian oil company that criticised Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to have suddenly died.
Vladimir Nekrasov, 66, chairman of the Lukoil board of directors, died “suddenly” – marking the latest in a series of high-profile deaths of Russian oil tycoons.
He is revealed as the third executive at Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil company, to die a mystery death in the last 18 months.
The Russian oil giant reportedly criticised Putin’s invasion of Ukraine dies suddenly.
Here’s more about the businessman, his net worth, and his cause of death.
What was Vladimir Nekrasov’s cause of death?
Russian oil tycoon Vladimir Nekrasov has died aged 66.
The board of directors of Lukoil, a Russian oil company, is named as the third tycoon to perish under suspicious circumstances within a year and a half in the same company.
Many mysterious deaths have been linked to the energy sector since the start of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Russian state media said doctors’ “preliminary” conclusion was that Nekrasov suffered “acute heart failure” and died at his home in Moscow.
The billionaire’s rumoured to be ‘poisoned by toad venom’, per TheSun.
Who was Vladimir Nekrasov?
Vladimir Nekrasov was a business magnate born and raised in Russia.
Besides his Russian citizenship, he reportedly had passports for Austria and the Czech Republic.
Nekrasov as well as his Russian citizenship, avoided sanctions by the West over the war.
He was believed to have held two EU passports before his death.
He was notably known as the executive board member of Lukoil, an oil company in Russia. It is the second-biggest in the country.
Nekrasov – who had been honoured by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev – took over from Maganov as chairman.
At the time he was Lukoil’s vice president and had previously been awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th degree.
What was Vladimir Nekrasov’s net worth?
Vladimir Nekrasov’s exact fortune was never reported by any reputable outlet but he was believed to be a billionaire.
By estimation, he had a net worth of at least $1 billion at the time he died.
He accrued his hefty figures from his primary career as a businessman with the bulk coming from the oil and gas company he headed as well as other endeavors.
Which other tycoons died mysteriously in Russia?
Nekrasov’s death follows that of tycoon Ravil Maganov, 67, who fell from a window of Moscow’s elite Central Clinical Hospital, also known as the Kremlin Clinic, in September last year.
There were suspicions of murder but officially Maganov had been in hospital for a “longstanding heart problem” and fell from a sixth-floor window, dying on the spot.
Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, also linked to energy giant Lukoil where he was a top manager, was found dead in May after “taking advice from shamans”.
One theory is that Subbotin – who also owned a shipping company – was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.
And the body of energy boss Igor Shkurko, 49, deputy general director of Yakutskenergo was discovered in his cell in a detention center after he was accused of taking a bribe.
Experts believe the deaths of at least 39 previous deaths high-profile figures – ranging from oligarchs to scientists and even generals – could show the shadowy and bloodstained hand of the Kremlin.
Sergey Grishin – the so-called “Scarface” oligarch who sold Meghan Markle and Prince Harry their California mansion – died from sepsis after criticising Putin.
And meanwhile scientist Andrey Botikov – who created the “Sputnik V” vaccine – was strangled with a belt in his apartment.
Jon Sweet, a retired US Army Military Intelligence Officer, and Mark Toth, a national security analyst, described Putin as running “modern-day FSB version of Murder Inc”.
Murder Inc. was an organised crime group that operated in the US – and is believed to have been responsible for more than 1,000 contact killings in the 1930s.
Sweet told The Sun Online: “Anyone seen as a potential threat seems to have an attraction to an open window.”
A number of Putin regime critics have claimed the recent deaths are murders, as Russia’s paranoid head of state purges his inner circle.