Russian lawmaker critical of Putin found dead in Odisha under mysterious circumstances, probe underway

A Russian lawmaker critical of President Vladimir Putin was found dead in Odisha’s Rayagada under mysterious circumstances. The local police have launched a probe into the incident.

Pavel Antov who was also a multi-millionaire and a philanthropist was found in a pool of blood after falling off from a third-floor window of his hotel.

Antov came to India as a tourist to celebrate his 65th birthday, ANI reported.

He was traveling with a four-member tourist group and had checked into the hotel last Wednesday, Russia Today reported.

According to reports, Antov’s death happened just days after his Russian friend Vladimir Bidenov was found dead at the same hotel on 22 December.

A senior police officer said that the lawmaker’s seemed to be a case of suicide, PTI reported.

A police officer said Antov and his friends had arrived in the state in mid-December and visited several locations before arriving at their hotel in Rayagada at the start of last week, AFP reported.

In July, Antov who was a regional MP from Vladimir Oblast posted a story on WhatsApp criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, The Telegraph reported.

Shortly afterward, he deleted the story and said that it was posted by someone else.

He added that he was “a supporter of the president and my country’s patriot,” ABP News reported.

‘No criminal angle,’ says Russia Embassy

Meanwhile, the Russian embassy said the Odisha Police have found no criminal angle in the case so far, NDTV reported.

Notably, several of Putin’s critics have been found dead under mysterious circumstances or have been murdered in the last few years.

Boris Nemtsov, a Kremlin critic, and a former deputy prime minister was shot dead in 2015 as he walked home across a Moscow bridge near the Kremlin.

Five Chechen men were convicted of killing Nemtsov but the mastermind of the murder was never found.

With inputs from agencies

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