The death of Russian tycoon and politician Pavel Antov, who fell from the third floor of a hotel in India days after the death of one of his travel companions, is being investigated by the Police, who have stated that they give priority to the hypothesis of suicide.
The death of Antov, known as the king of sausages for his meat empire and who had criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is the latest in a list of Russian millionaires who died after the start of the war.
Antov died when he fell from the third floor of the Sai International hotel in the city of Rayagada, in the eastern state of Odisha, said the superintendent of the district Police, Vivekananda Sharma, in statements collected by The Hindu newspaper.
Sharma claimed that one of the tycoon's companions, Vladimir Budanov, was found dead last Friday at the hotel after suffering a heart attack. Antov, 65, was "depressed by death and he also passed away."
The receptionist at the establishment, Bijaya Kumar Swain, who was in the building when the event took place, explained to EFE that Antov was celebrating his birthday at the hotel, where he arrived on December 21 accompanied by three other people, including the also Russian Budanov. Swain claimed that Budanov had "drank a lot of bottles of alcohol" the night before he was killed.
Antov was a member of the legislative assembly of the Vladimir region, near the capital Moscow, and was embroiled in controversy last June when he condemned Russian missile attacks on Ukraine in leaked WhatsApp conversations. However, the tycoon apologized days after the leak and claimed to be a patriot and support the war.
Antov's death joins the list of millionaires of Russian nationality who have died in mysterious circumstances since the beginning of the war.
Last September, the executive director of the Russian Far Eastern Development Corporation, Ivan Pechorin, died after falling from a ship in the Sea of Japan near Russky Island.
That same month, the president of the Russian oil company Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, 67, died after falling out of the window of the Moscow hospital where he was admitted. Lukoil's board of directors was critical of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine
