A Russian sausage tycoon and politician was allegedly found dead in a pool of blood after he fell from a third-story hotel window in India, according to reports.
Pavel Antov, a multi-millionaire member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, had been celebrating his 66th birthday at Hotel Sai International in the Indian state of Odisha when the incident happened Sunday, The Telegraph reported.
🔴A ‘depressed’ Russian sausage magnate who briefly criticised Russia’s Ukraine invasion has died after falling from a hotel window in India https://t.co/8BBF8fCg2B
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 27, 2022
The police suspected Antov committed suicide after his friend Vladimir Bidenov died Thursday in the same hotel, The Telegraph reported, citing an anonymous police officer who spoke to India’s NDTV news outlet. Bidenov was allegedly found unconscious in his room with a number of empty wine bottles.
Antov founded the popular meat producer Vladimir Standard, according to The Telegraph. He was also the chairman of the agriculture committee at the legislature in Vladimir, Russia, and Russian Forbes ranked him the country’s most well-paid lawmaker, reportedly earning an annual income of roughly $156 million.
In July, Antov called Russia’s attack on Ukraine “terrorism” on the texting app WhatsApp, in response to reports that a girl’s house had been shelled, according to The Telegraph. He later apologized for the post, blamed someone else for uploading it and called himself a “patriot” who “shared the goals” of the Kremlin. (RELATED: CHUDNOVSKY: Here’s What Neither Left Nor Right Wants To Acknowledge About Ukraine)
Antov is one of several Russian businessmen who have died unexpectedly in 2022. In September, the chairman of Russia’s Lukoil corporation, Ravil Maganov, allegedly fell out of a sixth-floor window at Moscow’s Central Clinic Hospital. The board of the company ostensibly called for an end to the war in Ukraine prior to Maganov’s death.
Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former rector to the Moscow Aviation Institute, died unexpectedly in September, also following a statement from the company decrying the war in Ukraine, CNN reported. Alexander Buzakov, the head of a Russian shipyard that specializes in constructing submarines, died in December without any reported cause of death, according to Reuters.