“Sudden Russian death”: the cases pile up Rhodes forest fires: mother missed her son and criticized the Swiss embassy

It could be the latest in a series of mysterious deaths of famous Russians: IT multimillionaire Anton Cherepennikov was found lifeless in his Moscow office. According to Russian media reports, the 40-year-old, who was reportedly President Putin’s top eavesdropping specialist, has died of cardiac arrest. But a friend, Vasily Polonsky, doesn’t believe in that version of things.

“I don’t think he died of cardiac arrest,” Polonski said, according to Russia’s Telegram channel “Baza”. The cause of death had already been announced before an autopsy was performed on the body.

According to the newspaper “Bild”, the Russian opposition also has doubts about the official account: the Russian security apparatus is desperate because of the failure of the war, so the murder of Cherepennikov cannot be ruled out. Cherepennikov was the founder of ICS Holding, which included several IT companies. According to media reports, they would have followed large parts of Russian data traffic on the internet.

What could be behind the man’s death instead? Perhaps he made himself unpopular with the Kremlin and therefore eliminated? One thing is certain: Since the beginning of Russia’s offensive war against Ukraine, reports of mysterious and sometimes unexplained deaths of businessmen, senior officials and politicians have increased.

“Sudden Russian Death”

According to the American magazine The Atlantic, about two dozen well-known Russians died in mysterious circumstances last year. From falling windows to suspected poisoning, suspected heart attacks and apparent suicides, everything is covered. Because the number of cases has risen so quickly, the American magazine “The Atlantic” dubbed the phenomenon “Sudden Russian Death Syndrome” – the “Sudden Russian Death”, based on the still largely unexplained phenomenon of SIDS.

For Russia expert Fabian Burkhardt, there isn’t just one possible mastermind. “Things are too different for that,” he said on t-online last October. Many deaths can probably never be cleared up, but in some the structures are easier to see through. The Kremlin and its secret service are rarely considered.

An explanation from the expert: Western war sanctions against the Moscow elite have led to significantly less money in circulation in Russia. This leads to “divisional struggles within the economic elite”. Accordingly, Russian business executives fought among themselves not to perish in the maelstrom of sanctions and the economic crisis. This, according to Burkhardt, can even go as far as killing competitors.

Forced suicides are also possible

The fact that there are actually more suicides could also be part of the explanation. Historian and military strategy expert Edward Luttwak observes an outburst of mass desperation among Russia’s allied and privileged elite. “Imagine what will happen to a globalized country if sanctions come into effect,” he told The Atlantic. “Some of them will commit suicide.”

In the case of oligarchs critical of the Kremlin, the situation may be different again. At the end of last year, for example, Russian regional politician Pavel Antow fell out of a hotel window in India. The oligarch, who made a fortune as a sausage manufacturer, is said to have previously been highly critical of Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Did he really fall? Was he pushed by a Kremlin agent? Or did he get a call that left him feeling like he had no choice but to kill himself? In an interview with The Atlantic, journalist Michael Weiss, who wrote a book about the Russian military intelligence service GRU, considers all these scenarios plausible. “It’s not unusual to be told, ‘We can come to you, or you can do the manly thing and kill yourself, get yourself off the chessboard,'” Weiss said.

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(t online)