One of Russia’s richest MPs dies in a fatal fall from his hotel room while on vacation in India. He had previously publicly criticized Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Just a few days earlier, one of his fellow travelers had been found dead in the same hotel.
Pavel Antov was considered the highest-earning elected politician in Russia, he was a deputy for Vladimir Putin’s ruling party “United Russia” and earned billions as the founder of a meat factory. Now he is dead.
On a vacation trip through India, where Antov wanted to celebrate his 66th birthday, he died in an unexplained fall from the third floor of a hotel.
A fellow traveler of Antov died in the same hotel last week. He is said to have suffered a heart attack on Thursday. Antov died two days later on Saturday. According to local reports, Antov was found in a pool of blood outside a hotel in the eastern Indian city of Rayagada. Russian authorities confirmed the death, but left the cause of death open.
Although Antov is a member of the pro-Putin party, he criticized the war against Ukraine last summer and spoke of “terror” against civilians.
Referring to a Russian missile attack in June, he said: “A girl was pulled out from under the rubble, the girl’s father appears to have died. To be honest, it’s difficult to describe this as anything other than terror.” This is reported, among other things, by the “ Daily Mail ”. After the comment, he came under public pressure, apologizing and saying his social media post was “an unfortunate misunderstanding” and a “technical error”.
Russian media outlet Shot said Indian police “are not ruling out the possibility that Pavel Antov may have become depressed and committed suicide over the death of his friend.”
