The king of sausages in Russia criticized Putin months before he fell from a terrace in India (Obzor)

Pavel Antov had a net worth of $156 million in 2019.

The friend of a Russian millionaire who fell from a hotel roof in India has died of a heart attack linked to drug abuse and drunkenness. That’s what Indian authorities say in an attempt to unravel the deaths of the two Russians, who left one after the other within a few days during the holidays.

Multi-millionaire Pavel Antov, an MP from the pro-Putin United Russia party, was celebrating his upcoming 66th birthday in Rayagada but was found lying dead in a pool of blood outside a luxury hotel on Saturday. He is known in his country as the king of sausages, as he has a business in the meat industry.

His mysterious fall came just two days after his companion in India, Vladimir Budanov, who was 61, died in hospital after falling ill suddenly.

“All possible scenarios regarding the death of the two Russian citizens are being investigated. For now, it appears that Antov accidentally fell from the hotel terrace,” regional police chief Rajesh Pandit told AFP. He added that Budanov’s death was probably caused by

binge drinking and possible overdose

drugs, although Indian authorities are still awaiting autopsy results.

The police chief suggested that Antov may have committed suicide by jumping from the roof terrace of the Sai International Hotel in a fit of grief over Budanov’s death.

“He was probably disturbed by the death of his friend and went to the terrace of the hotel and probably fell,” the police chief said. However, the circumstances surrounding the death of the two Russians are far from being revealed.

Russian Consul General in Kolkata Alexei Idamkin told TASS that Antov fell from the hotel window, not that he jumped from its roof.

“We are closely monitoring the investigation and getting all the information from the Odisha police,” the diplomat said.

Police said they are reviewing CCTV footage, questioning hotel staff and awaiting final autopsy reports, but so far there are no signs anything suspicious happened to the two. However, both bodies have already been cremated.

According to Western publications, Antov traveled with the late Bidanov, as well as with two other Russian citizens – Natalia Pansasenko and her husband Mikhail Turov.

Antov is a well-known deputy in the local parliament of the Vladimir region, near Moscow. In 2018, he topped the ranking of “Forbes” in Russia for the 100 richest civil servants in the country. Thanks to his ventures, he had $156.3 million in 2018. The MP made his fortune in the meat industry by founding the Vladimirsky Standard food processing enterprise. He was born in Voskresensk, near Moscow, and graduated from the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg.

He played an important role in the legislative assembly in Vladimir, heading the committee on agrarian policy and ecology. The deputy speaker of the assembly, Vyacheslav Kartukhin, said he died under “tragic circumstances”.

In June, Antov criticized the war and the airstrikes against Kyiv as Russian “terror” on social networks. Then he commented on a specific Russian attack, saying: “A girl has been pulled from the rubble, the father appears to have been killed. They are trying to get the mother out with a crane because she is stuck under a slab. To be honest, this is extremely difficult

to be called anything but terror”

The millionaire later retracted the comment and apologized, claiming his social media post was an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and a “technical error.” He insisted that he had “always supported the president” and “sincerely” believed in the goals of Putin’s military operation.

Journalists, however, categorically disputed his new opinion.

20 Russian rich people met their death after the start of the war

22 high-ranking Russian businessmen have died by suicide or in unexplained accidents this year, six of them linked to Russia’s two largest energy companies, CNN reported. Media describe some of them. One of the latest cases is that of Alexander Buzakov, head of a shipyard specializing in non-nuclear submarines. He died suddenly last week with no cause of death given.

Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute, died in an unspecified accident in September. According to various sources, he fell down the stairs.

Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov also passed away in September after falling from a hospital window in Moscow. Another top manager of the company, Alexander Subotin, was found dead near the Russian capital in May after visiting a shaman. Lukoil is one of the few Russian companies that publicly called for an end to the invasion of Ukraine.

In mid-September, Russian businessman Ivan Pechorin, who was a top manager of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, was found dead in Vladivostok. He is believed to have fallen from his yacht and drowned near Cape Ignatiev in the Sea of ​​Japan. Pechorin is said to have been tasked with modernizing Russia’s aviation industry and worked directly under Vladimir Putin.

In March, the bodies of Russian billionaire Vasily Melnikov and his family were found in their luxury apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. He made his fortune working for one of the medical companies hit by Western sanctions. In April, former Gazprombank vice president Vladislav Avaev, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter were found shot to death in their Moscow apartment. Police said the businessman probably killed his family and then took his own life. Just a day later, Sergey Protosenya, the former head of the Novatek gas producer, was found hanged in his villa in Spain along with his wife and daughter, who had been stabbed to death. According to the police, the rich man killed his family before hanging himself, although no suicide note was found. Protosenya’s son later said he thought his father was killed.

Ukraine-born Russian oil and gas billionaire Mikhail Watford was also found dead at his home in Surrey, England, on February 28. According to the city police, there are no suspicious circumstances in the case.

In July, police found Yuri Voronov, the head of the shipping company Astra Shipping, which contracts for Gazprom, dead in a swimming pool at his home in the same suburb near St. Petersburg. He was found with a gunshot wound to the head, and authorities again ruled it a suicide.

Just a month before the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, a senior executive of the Gazprom gas company was found dead in his villa near St. Petersburg. 60-year-old Leonid Shulman was found in the bathroom with cut veins.

The morning after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Alexander Tyulyakov, Gazprom’s senior head of corporate security, died at his home in the same village as Shulman. According to Novaya Gazeta, he hanged himself in his garage.