Russian energy exec Ivan Pechorin, falls from boat in latest mystery death

Ivan Pechorin

A high-level executive in Russia’s energy sector has died after apparently falling off a boat over the weekend, becoming the latest Russian powerbroker to perish under mysterious circumstances.

Ivan Pechorin, 39, managing director of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (ERDC), was sailing off the coast of Russky Island in the Sea of Japan on Saturday when he fell overboard from the speeding vessel.

His body was recovered from the water on Monday following an extended search.

Only days earlier, Pechorin had attended the Eastern Economic Forum, which was hosted by President Vladimir Putin in Valdivostok.

“Ivan’s death is an irreparable loss for friends and colleagues, a great loss for the corporation,” ERDC said in a statement posted on its website.

Pechorin’s death comes eight months after his former boss, Igor Nosov, died from a reported stroke at age 43.

There has been a spate of fatalities involving top businessmen with ties to the Kremlin since the beginning of the year — and each one has been classified either as a suicide or an accident, reported Daily Mail.

On Sept. 1, Ravil Maganov, 67, vice president of the Russian oil company Lukoil, died in a suspected fall from a window at the same Moscow hospital where Putin would later come to pay his final respects to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Lukoil stated that Maganov passed away after battling a serious illness.

In July, Yuri Voronov, 61, a top executive at the transportation company Astra Shipping, was found shot to death in his swimming pool in a suburb of Saint Petersburg.

In April, former vice president of Gazprombank Vladislav Avayev, 51, was discovered shot dead, along with his wife and their 13-year-old daughter, following a suspected murder-suicide.

Local authorities said the acts of violence were likely carried out by the businessman in a jealous rage because he suspected that his 47-year-old wife was pregnant by his personal chauffeur, the Russian news site kp.ru reported, citing a law enforcement source.

Just days later, a similarly grisly incident took place in Spain, where police discovered the bodies of Sergey Protosenya, former CEO of Novatek a company with ties to the Kremlin his wife and their teenage daughter.

It has been suggested that the 55-year-old Protosenya murdered his family with an axe before hanging himself.

In January and February, Leonid Shulman and Alexander Tyulakov two high-ranking officials at Gazprom, Russia’s majority state-owned energy corporation — purportedly took their own lives and left suicide notes.

Tyulakov was discovered with a noose around his neck, but there have been unconfirmed reports that he had been severely beaten.

Shulman was found stabbed to death and lying in a pool of blood in the same luxury gated community as Tyulakov.