Lukoil chair Ravil Maganov dies after fall from hospital window, Russian media report

The chair of oil major Lukoil, one of the few Russian companies to criticise the war in Ukraine, has died after a falling out of a hospital window in Moscow, according to Russian media.

Ravil Maganov, one of the longest-serving executives at Russia’s second-largest oil producer, died six months after the company’s board released a statement calling for a speedy end to the conflict.

Russian state media, citing anonymous law enforcement sources, said Maganov’s death was being treated as suicide. Mash, a media outlet with close ties to Russia’s police, said Maganov was being treated for heart problems and had also recently been diagnosed with depression.

Maganov, 67, worked at Lukoil for nearly 30 years and became chair in 2020.

He was being treated at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, a facility operated by Russia’s presidential property management department and normally reserved for the elite. Former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev died at the same hospital following a long illness on Tuesday.

Founded from state oil assets during the break-up of the Soviet Union by Vagit Alekperov, a former Soviet deputy energy minister, Lukoil is one of the few major energy companies in Moscow not under control of the state.

In March, Lukoil’s board put out a statement expressing its “deepest concerns about the tragic events in Ukraine” and “sincere empathy for all victims, who are affected by this tragedy”.

Though cautious — Lukoil’s board refrained from criticising President Vladimir Putin personally or blaming Russia for invading Ukraine — the call to end the war was rare among Russian corporates, most of whom continue to maintain an awkward silence.

On Thursday, Lukoil confirmed Maganov’s death but did not comment on how he died.

“We deeply regret to announce that Ravil Maganov, chairman of Lukoil board of directors, passed away following a severe illness,” Lukoil said in a statement. “Ravil Maganov immensely contributed to the development of not only the company, but of the entire Russian oil and gas sector.”

Maganov’s brother, Nail, is chief executive of another major Russian oil producer, Tatneft.

Several mid-ranking Russian energy executives have died in unusual circumstances since the war broke out.

A day after the invasion began in February, Alexander Tyulyakov, a deputy head of gas monopoly Gazprom’s treasury, was found dead in the garage of his home in Leninsky, an elite St Petersburg suburb.

Investigators’ working theory was that Tyulyakov’s death was the second suicide in the same suburb in less than a month, after Leonid Shulman, an executive at Gazprom’s transport subsidiary, was found dead in his bathroom in late January.

In July, police found Yuri Voronov, the head of a shipping company that contracts for Gazprom dead in a swimming pool at his home in the same suburb near St Petersburg from a gunshot wound to the head.

Russian media linked Voronov’s death to a business dispute and said Shulman was depressed after splitting up with his wife and suffering a serious leg injury.

In April, former Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev, his wife, and 13-year-old daughter were found shot dead in their Moscow flat. Police said Avayev probably killed his family in a murder-suicide but have not named a possible motive.

Just a day later, Sergei Protosenya, a former senior executive at gas producer Novatek, was found hanged in his villa in Spain alongside his wife and teenage daughter, who had been stabbed to death.

Police also concluded Protosenya killed his family before hanging himself, according to Spanish media, despite finding no suicide note or fingerprints on the murder weapons. Protosenya’s son later said he believed his father was murdered.

Novatek also appeared to cast doubt on the police findings by saying “speculations have emerged in the media about this topic, but we are convinced that these speculations bear no relation to reality”.

In May, a former Lukoil executive, Alexander Subbotin, died of a heart attack at a rented house in a downscale area in Moscow’s outskirts, according to investigators.

Mash reported the house belonged to a shaman and his wife who practised esoteric medicine with toad venom, cockerel blood, and “the help of spirits”.

The outlet claimed Subbotin had visited the couple “regularly” and was there for a seance to cure him from a hangover. When Subbotin suddenly fell ill, the shaman gave him a valerian root tranquilliser and left him in a basement instead of calling an ambulance, it said.