Next manager dead

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Vitaly Robertus died at the age of just 54.

(Bild: AFP or licensors)

Another top manager of a major company in Russia has been found dead. As the oil company Lukoil announced on its company website, Vice President Vitaly Robertus "died suddenly" at the age of just 54. Further details on the cause of death were not published, as there had already been several mysterious deaths in connection with Lukoil.

"It is with great regret that we inform you that the Vice President of the company, Robertus Vitaly Vladimirovich, died suddenly at the age of 54. (...) During his 30 years of service at Lukoil, he earned the respect of his colleagues not only within the company, but throughout the industry," the Russian company's website states.

Robertus was a trained airplane and helicopter pilot and had a penchant for building model airplanes. The businessman was a seven-time Russian champion in model flying and four-time world champion.

Mysterious accumulation of deaths among managers
Robertus is the fourth Lukoil managing director to die since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In October, Vladimir Nekrasov, then 66 years old, died of acute heart failure. He was the successor to CEO Rawil Maganov, who had previously died in a fall from the window of a Moscow hospital.

Vitaly Robertus died at the age of just 54.

(Bild: AFP or licensors)

A mysterious death of managers is rampant at Lukoil.

(Bild: APA/AFP/KENZO TRIBOUILLARD)

Before Maganov, manager Alexander Subbotin also died in May 2023, allegedly during an occult treatment for alcohol addiction.

Since the beginning of 2022, several managers of Russian companies have been found dead. In general, the list of sensational deaths and political attacks in Russia is getting longer and longer. Here is an overview:

• The journalist Anna Politkovskaya made a name for herself as a critic of the wars in Chechnya. On October 7, 2006 - the 54th birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin - she was shot dead in Moscow.
• The Kremlin opponent Alexander Litvinenko died in November 2006 in London after an attack with the radiation poison polonium 210. The victim accused Putin of being behind the assassination attempt.
• The human rights activist Natalia Estemirova was found shot dead in the North Caucasus in 2009.
• Journalist Anastasiya Baburova and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov were shot dead on the street in Moscow in 2009.
• Opposition politician and former deputy head of government Boris Nemtsov was shot dead from a car near the Kremlin walls in 2015.
• The ex-spy and his daughter Yulia and Sergei Skripal narrowly survived an attack with the nerve agent Novichok in the southern English city of Salisbury in 2018.
• Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny survived an attack with the nerve agent Novichok in August 2020. After his recovery, he returned to Moscow in January 2021. After landing, he was immediately arrested and died in a Siberian prison camp.