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ted_bloody_maul

Gone But Not Forgotten
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(Copied from the Anna Politkovskaya murder thread)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/anna-politkovskaya-murdered.27920/

Claims of 'incitement to suicide' after journalist falls to his death

A Russian journalist who plunged to his death in suspicious circumstances was investigating what he suspected were covert Kremlin arms deals with Iran and Syria shortly before he died.

Ivan Safronov, 51, military affairs correspondent of Kommersant newspaper, died last Friday after falling from a fourth floor window in his Moscow apartment block. Although there were no signs of foul play, his colleagues refuse to believe he committed suicide and the Moscow prosecutor's office has started a criminal investigation into possible 'incitement to suicide'. Kommersant disclosed yesterday that shortly before his death he had been working on an investigation whose findings would have caused an international scandal if proved.

Ilya Bulavinov, the newspaper's deputy editor, said he could not rule out the possibility that his death may have been linked to his work. The paper revealed that the journalist had been warned by the FSB security service not to publish the results of his investigation. If he went ahead, he was apparently told he would be charged with divulging state secrets. His colleagues say he had decided to play it safe and sit on the story.

The article, which was not published, claimed that Russia was negotiating to sell fighter jets and sophisticated surface-to-surface missiles to Syria and surface-to-air missiles to Iran. Safronov believed the arms shipments would be covertly routed via Belarus to allow Moscow to avoid Western allegations that it supported 'rogue' states.

* Two US citizens who ingested the poison thallium, were in a serious condition yesterday, 10 days after falling ill in Moscow.
A spokeswoman for the Sklifosovsky Clinic, said the women were both in a' medium serious condition'.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2334908.ece
 
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NPR asks an obvious question, "Why do Russian Journalists Keep Falling"

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling


That's a heck of a lot of Russians falling off of balconies and high-up windows. They need to start booking them into ground-floor rooms for their own protection.

the lawyer for Sergei Magnitsky, who was the source of reporting on Russia's largest tax fraud, fell from a fourth-story window while trying to move a bathtub

upload_2018-4-25_10-1-55.png
 
The Russian Embassy is Russian territory so I reckon this belongs here. Did he jump or was he defenestrated?

A Russian diplomat was found dead last month outside the country's embassy in the German capital, it has emerged.

The man's body was discovered on the pavement on 19 October by police guarding the Berlin compound, Der Spiegel website reported. The man had apparently fallen from an upper floor, but it was unclear how, it added. Germany's foreign ministry confirmed the diplomat's death to reporters but would not give further details. Police in Berlin have not publicly commented on the death, which was reported for the first time on Friday. Der Spiegel said the embassy called it a "tragic accident" on which it would not comment "for ethical reasons".

The man has not been officially named, but reports say he was 35 years old and listed as a second secretary of the Russian embassy.

Investigative website Bellingcat said it had used open source data to establish the man was the son of the deputy director of the Second Service of Russia's FSB intelligence agency.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59175317
 
In Russia, defenestration seems to be a particular hazard:

Three Russian doctors fall from hospital windows, raising questions amid coronavirus pandemic​

(via CNN)

And now, that phenomenon seems to have spread elsewhere with the sphere:

Russian diplomat's body found outside Berlin embassy​

(via RTE News)
Quoth: "The man, whose lifeless body was recovered on 19 October on the pavement by police, had apparently fallen to his death from the embassy complex, according to the Spiegel weekly which first reported the case."
"German authorities believe he was also an agent of the Russian secret service FSB."

Dangerous things, windows for Russians.
 

Diplomat found dead outside Berlin embassy was Russian secret agent - Der Spiegel​

BERLIN (Reuters) -German security services believe that a man found dead in a street outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin last month was an undercover agent of Russia's FSB intelligence service, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

The body of the 35-year-old man was found early on Oct. 19 by Berlin police officers guarding the building, the magazine said. Quoting security sources, it said the man had fallen from an upper floor at the embassy.

The officers called an ambulance, but medics were unable to resuscitate him, it added.

The embassy confirmed in a statement to Interfax news agency that a Russian diplomat had died but said it was "not commenting on this tragic event for ethical reasons".

Berlin police declined to comment and directed all questions to public prosecutors, who said they could neither confirm nor deny the Der Spiegel report. The discovery of a body outside the Russian diplomatic mission had not previously been reported.

Security sources told the magazine it was unclear how the diplomat had fallen and what had caused his death. The Russian Embassy had not agreed to an autopsy, Der Spiegel said.

"All formalities linked to repatriating the body of the diplomat were promptly settled with the responsible law enforcement and medical authorities of Germany in accordance with the practices in place," the embassy said in its statement to Interfax.

The man, who has not been named, was officially listed as a second secretary at the embassy, the magazine said. He was also a relative of a Russia-based senior officer of the FSB's second directorate, which deals with anti-terrorism.

The embassy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Spiegel report.

A German Foreign Ministry spokesman told a regular news briefing on Friday that the German government was aware of the death of a Russian diplomat in Berlin but could not give any details.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2404473-lich...ische-ambassade-berlijn-mogelijk-geheim-agent

The Russian would have fallen from a floor of the embassy on the sidewalk in the early morning of October 19. German agents found him there. How the man fell and whether there was an accident is not known. The Russian authorities have not had an autopsy performed, writes Der Spiegel.

The German Public Prosecutor's Office also cannot investigate the man's cause of death, because embassy staff have diplomatic immunity. The body of the deceased man would have been transferred to Russia.

The Russian embassy speaks after questions from Der Spiegel of a "tragic accident", but for "ethical reasons" does not want to say anything else about it. The German police could not be reached for comment for the magazine.
 
Haven't we covered the 'Russian diplomat' deaths before? I'm talking about the ones that seem to usually 'fall' from a great height, not at all suspiciously.
 
Hmmm.

The chairman of Russia's Lukoil oil giant, Ravil Maganov, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, reports say.

Maganov is the latest of a number of high-profile business executives to die in mysterious circumstances. Investigating authorities said they were working at the scene to establish how he died. Tass news agency quoted sources saying he had fallen out of a sixth-floor window, adding later that he had taken his own life.

https://boingboing.net/2022/09/01/c...ompany-dies-in-fall-from-hospital-window.html
 
Another high-profile defenestration. Seeing a pattern emerging here.
 
Hmmm.

The chairman of Russia's Lukoil oil giant, Ravil Maganov, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, reports say.

Maganov is the latest of a number of high-profile business executives to die in mysterious circumstances. Investigating authorities said they were working at the scene to establish how he died. Tass news agency quoted sources saying he had fallen out of a sixth-floor window, adding later that he had taken his own life.

https://boingboing.net/2022/09/01/c...ompany-dies-in-fall-from-hospital-window.html
He and Lukoil's board were notably anti-war, which I'm thinking probably had something to do with his bad case of gravity poisoning.

/they really need to make the windows in tall Russian buildings un-openable.
 
An ex-business colleague of mine in Ukraine, Dan Rapaport, a former Moscow businessman and lately an investor in Ukrainian tech companies as well as in his spare time being a heavy critic of Putin also suffered from the window curse and is now dead at the age of 52.

Bit shocked to be honest as he was certainly not a suicide candidate.

plenty of cash and enjoying being single following his divorce.
 
aAn ex-business colleague of mine in Ukraine, Dan Rapaport, a former Moscow businessman and lately an investor in Ukrainian tech companies as well as in his spare time being a heavy critic of Putin also suffered from the window curse and is now dead at the age of 52.

Bit shocked to be honest as he was certainly not a suicide candidate.

plenty of cash and enjoying being single following his divorce.


Actually colleague is probably the wrong word .... associate would be a better description, but certainly a friend and business compatriot in the world of early stage Ukrainian tech companies.

(And for those of you who wonder what the upside is ... Grammarly is a Ukrainian invention)

There was / is plenty more to follow from Ukraine, no wonder Putin was annoyed!
 
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