A top Russian oil tycoon has died after mysteriously plunging 180ft from a window at his luxury Moscow home.
The body of Andrey Badalov, 62, was discovered this morning at the bottom of an exclusive high-rise apartment building in Moscow’s affluent Rublevskoye neighbourhood.
Badalov was the vice-president of state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft.
He reportedly lived on the building’s 10th floor but fell from the 17th storey, according to local media.
A source said the ‘preliminary cause’ of death is ‘suicide’, as investigators reportedly discovered a note Badalov had left to his wife.
Badalov had been appointed vice-president for the oil giant in 2021 during a ‘complex and tense period’ and had been credited with helping the company ‘overcome the challenges’ posed by Western sanctions.
He previously worked at the state-owned Voskhod Scientific Research Institute.
He had also studied at the General Staff Academy of the Armed Forces, which trains high-level officers and state managers.
The tycoon leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
His sudden death is the latest in a spate of unexplained deaths of leading Russian figures under mysterious circumstances.
In these cases, individuals have died falling from windows, apparent suicides and in accidents. Some have been known to be critics of Vladimir Putin.
Top Russian oligarch Mikhail Rogachev, 64, was found dead back in October after mysteriously falling from a 110ft window in Moscow.
Rogachev was the vice-president of Russian oil giant Yukos, which was forced out of business for turning against Putin.
TV channels reported that he lived on the tenth floor and that it was a suicide, claiming he had cancer and left a note.
But these reports were vehemently denied by his close friends and relatives.
His family insisted there were no signs that he was suicidal and he was in a ‘good mood’ shortly before his death.
Hellbound and Down 