Putin Ally's Son Dies Under Mysterious Circumstances, Raising Suspicions

The son of Igor Sechin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead in "strange" circumstances earlier this month, Newsweek reported. Igor is the CEO of Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft.

The death of 35-year-old Ivan Sechin came to light after an exiled Russian oligarch, Leonid Nevzlin, took to Facebook to highlight that he found information about Ivan's death in Russia's national register of inheritance cases.

Nevzlin, a staunch Putin critic, wrote in a statement published on Facebook that the Sechin family has been forced to hide their grief.

"Today, when we recalled with my friends and partners why the Kremlin war against Yukos began...it was today that I learned that Igor Sechin had just lost his son. The very same man who fabricated every blatant and bloody case against us." he said in his post.

"Probably hard to believe but my heart goes out to a father who lost his child. How I sympathise with Alexei Navalny's mother. How I sympathised in recent years to Bory Nemtsov's mother, who left us this month," Nevzlin added. "My condolences to Sechin's family, who are forced to hide their grief."

Ivor's death is the latest in a string of such incidents that have been reported in Russia since it invaded Ukraine.

Several prominent Russians have died in unexplained circumstances over the last two years. A majority of these deaths were deemed accidental, like falling out of windows or down the stairs.

At least 12 high-ranking Russian oligarchs have died since the start of the war. Most of them had links to the country's energy industry.

In a similar incident reported in December 2022, a former Russian army chief with ties to Ukraine died "suddenly" at the age of 69, a day after President Putin abruptly cancelled a trip to the general's workplace in the Nizhny Tagil region.

In the same month, a Russian businessman and lawmaker named Pavel Antov was found dead in a hotel in the Indian state of Odisha. The multi-millionaire died after falling from the third floor of his hotel in the Rayagada district of the state. He died just two days after his fellow traveller, Vladimir Budanov, also died at the same hotel.

A third Russian citizen was found dead in the Indian state of Odisha just weeks after Antov's death. The deceased was identified as 51-year-old engineer Milyakov Sergy. He was found dead onboard a cargo ship docked at Paradip Port in Jagatsinghpur district of the state.

He was the captain of the vessel M.B. Aldnah, which was on its way to Mumbai from Chittagong Port in Bangladesh via Paradip. The police believe that he might have died of a heart attack after "suddenly collapsing onboard the ship."