It was considered suspicious that the men who died separated so soon, and it did not lessen the suspicions of many that since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , at least 19 Russian oligarchs and high officials have died in mysterious circumstances. Some “fell” through the windows, others committed suicide and one of them fell down the stairs.
What these unfortunates had in common was that they had publicly criticized the invasion of Ukraine and/or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Wall Street Journal recently took a closer look at the Antov and Bidenov cases and discovered their related issues.
The newspaper specifies that according to information from the police, they would have both consumed a lot of alcohol in the days which preceded their death. They went to India together to celebrate Antov’s 65th anniversary. On the way to Moscow, they caught the attention of others on the plane because of their drunkenness.
After arriving in New Delhi, they continued to drink and bought a lot of Indian rum.
Natabar Mohanty, who was their driver in New Delhi, said they were drinking heavily. Once he stalled the car and told the guide that these fellows would drink each other to hell if this continued.
Witnesses say Antov was once so drunk that he had to be carried in a car when the friends were out on an excursion.
An autopsy revealed that Bidenov died of a heart attack, while Antov died by falling from the balcony.
Despite this autopsy result, the Indian police opened a detailed investigation into the death of the comrades. Among other things, they tried to stage how Antov fell from the balcony. The reason is that there are rumors that he was pushed by them or that he was dead when he was pushed by them.
He became wealthy in the production of sausages and was one of the most active sausage makers in Russia. He was also a member of Putin’s political party and for a time was on good terms with Putin. That suddenly changed in July, when Antov criticized the missile attacks on Kiev, calling them terrorism. He later tried to apologize for those comments.
The Wall Street Journal says Indian police did not want to speculate on the men’s deaths or link the case to the war in Ukraine or Putin.
Their bodies were cremated shortly after their deaths, further fueling rumors and conspiracy theories. Or as Indian lawyer and politician Manish Tewari wrote on Twitter in reference to the famous detective Hercule Poirot who was the creation of British writer Agatha Christie: “Hercule Poirot said that a burnt corpse does not tell secrecy”.
