Dozens of people who criticized the Russian leadership have died under suspicious circumstances Vladimir Putin in a long-term presidency.
Some have been killed by shooting or poisoning. On Wednesday, the leader of the rebellion Yevgeny Prigozhin met his end after the plane carrying him crashed into the ground for an as yet unknown reason.
The killing of Russians who strive against the regime has a long history. Joseph Stalin the Soviet leader who rose up against him Lev Trostsky murdered with an ice pick in Mexico in 1940.
– There is a strong culture of revenge in the Russian security services. If someone is considered to have turned against the machine, killing is the right thing to do, explains a senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Margarita Zavadskaya.
Zavadskaja, who specializes in authoritarian regimes, says that before his death, Prigozhin had received a lot of support and freedom from Putin’s regime. His troops had been given access to military weapons.
In the end, however, Prigozhin turned against his political master, Zavadskaja states.
Visibility sends a message
Murders connected to the Russian state or their attempts are often quite special as murders.
In 2006, a former FSB employee Alexander Litvinenko for example, was poisoned to death with the radioactive poison polonium-210.
Using radioactive substances or Soviet-made nerve agents is not covering one’s tracks.
– The showiness of the murders is part of the issue. We want to make it clear to all concerned that we are behind the actions and create fear. At the same time, we want to hold on to the fact that we can officially resign from the whole matter, describes Zavadskaja.
Putin is responsible
According to the researcher, it is clear that Putin knows what murders the Russian security services are doing. According to Zavadskaja, the internal working methods of the Kremlin have also been leaked to the public over time.
– One way or another, Putin is certainly aware of these murders, the researcher says.
China is an authoritarian country like Russia, where the ruler does not have to fear being brought before a court.
However, Beijing does not spectacularly kill dissidents around the world, but the pressure takes place in the shadows.
– China has secret police institutions and a large, worldwide machinery that can be used to pressure people and make them return to China. Russia lacks these subtle tools and therefore has to resort to killing, Zavadskaja analysed.
listed the most famous assassinations connected to Vladimir Putin’s regime:
2006 – Anna Politkovskaya was killed by an assassin’s bullet
Supplier Anna Politkovskaya was shot in the elevator of his home in Moscow on October 7, 2006. The day is also Vladimir Putin’s birthday.
Politkovskaya was known both in Russia and internationally for her opposition to the war in Chechnya and criticism of Putin’s regime.
In 2014, five men were convicted of the murder of Politkovskaya. The person who ordered the murder has not been found out.
2006 – Aleksandr Litvinenko was killed by radioactive poison
Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former employee of the Russian security service FSB, died in London in 2006 after consuming green tea mixed with the radioactive poison polonium-210.
Litvinenko, who fled to Britain in 2000, had written a book in exile in which he said that FSB agents were involved in a series of bombings targeting Moscow apartment buildings in 1999.
The European Court of Human Rights EIT has held the Russian state responsible for the assassination.
2015 – Boris Nemtsov was shot while taking an evening walk
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov was shot on the outskirts of the Kremlin in 2015.
Boris Yeltsin Nemtsov, who became a national politician during his presidency in the 1990s, had become a vocal critic of Putin in the 2000s.
In June 2017, a Moscow court convicted five Chechen men of involvement in the murder of Nemtsov.
Russian security service agents had been following Nemtsov before he was killed, reports said group of investigative journalists in 2022.
2018 – There was an attempt to kill the Skripals with a nerve agent
Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia Skripal received a dose of the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury, UK in 2018.
Both survived the poisoning.
According to the British Public Prosecutor’s Office, the murder was attempted by two officers of the Russian military intelligence service GRU, who had arrived in the country with forged passports.
Charges have been brought against the suspects in Britain, but Russia has not handed them over to Britain.
2020 – Navalny was given the same poison as the Skripals
Russia’s most famous opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned in August 2020 while traveling by plane from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow.
The plane made an emergency landing and Navalnyi ended up in Germany for further treatment.
Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel according to Navalny, signs of Novichok nerve agent were found.
It was the same preparation that had previously been used to poison the Skripals.
2022 – The head of Lukoil, who opposed the war in Ukraine, fell from a window
Chairman of the board of Lukoil, Russia’s second largest oil company Ravil Maganov died in September 2022 in Moscow under unclear circumstances.
According to Russian media, Maganov died after falling from a hospital window. Lukoil, on the other hand, claimed that he died after a serious illness.
Lukoil, piloted by Maganov, had openly opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demanded an end to the war. The incident has reportedly not led to a police investigation or prosecution.
The video below shows the last moments of Yevgeny Prigozh’s plane before the crash.