Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, on November 29,2022.
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Indian authorities are investigating the mysterious death of a Russian lawmaker.
Russian sausage magnate Pavel Antov died in India in late December and was a longtime Putin ally.
In June, he spoke out against the war in Ukraine. Indian authorities are now investigating.
Indian authorities have provided new details about a Putin-linked Russian lawmaker and sausage company owner who mysteriously fell to his death from an Indian hotel where his travel companion died just two days prior.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Indian police have discovered new details about the pair of deaths in late December. Russian lawmaker Pavel Antov died in Rayagada, India, two days after his friend, Vladimir Bydanov.
The pair had been traveling through the jungle and drinking heavily, sources told The Journal. But their deaths add to a growing list of executives and military officers linked to Putin who have died privately, and at times suspiciously, during the course of the war in Ukraine.
Antov, who was a member of the ruling United Russia party, a sausage company owner, and the chairman of the agriculture and environment committee in Vladimir, Russia, had been critical of Putin ahead of his death in December. In June, the BBC reported that Antov shared a Whatsapp message criticizing the war in Ukraine, which he later deleted.
“It’s extremely difficult to call all this anything but terror,” the message said. He later backtracked on social media and offered his support for Putin.
Months later, Antov and Bydanov traveled to India to visit jungle areas in the eastern Odisha state of the country, according to The Journal. Indian investigators told The Journal that the trip was marked by binge drinking, which began during their plane rides into the country and continued as they visited rural areas.
“If they don’t stop drinking they’re going to kill themselves,” driver Natabar Mohanty said that he thought to himself during the trip, according to The Journal. So far, Indian investigators have said that there was no foul play.
Bydanov, who shared a room with Antov, died of a heart attack on Antov’s birthday. His body was cremated the next day and Antov was visibly affected by his friend’s loss, The Journal reported.
Two days after his friend’s death, a hotel staff member saw Antov — who had stopped eating food and drinking …read more
Source:: Business Insider