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IndiaPolice are investigating the suspicious death of a Russian MP
A Russian politician and his partner have died after falling from a hotel terrace where they were on holiday.
Russian politician and billionaire Pavel Andov “fell” from the hotel’s 3rd floor terrace.
Indian police are investigating the sudden death of a wealthy Russian politician and his traveling companion at a luxury hotel in eastern India, who allegedly posted posts criticizing the war in Ukraine, an Odisha state police official said. The body of Pavel Andov, 65, a member of a regional parliament in Russia, was found in a pool of blood outside the hotel where he was vacationing with three other Russians, police said. He apparently died after falling from the hotel floor.
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Two days earlier, another member of the Russian tour group, Vladimir Bidenov, was found unconscious in the same hotel, apparently suffering a heart attack and unable to recover. Police have examined all CCTV footage, interviewed hotel staff pending a detailed post-mortem, but have so far found no clues to the murder. “All possible angles related to the death of the two Russians are being investigated,” regional police chief Rajesh Pandit said. He said that the heart attack that caused the death of Vladimir Bideno could be due to alcohol abuse and drug overdose.
As for Pavel Anto, “he was probably disturbed by the death of his friend and went to the terrace of the hotel, from where he probably fell and died,” the police chief explained. Pavel Andov and his friends had arrived in Odisha state in mid-December. They visited various sites before arriving at their hotel in Rayagada early last week.
Two Indian tour guides accompanying the group and two other Russians were also questioned. Pavel Andov, a member of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, has been deputy speaker of the regional parliament 150 km east of Moscow since 2018.
Against the war in Ukraine
Before entering politics, he founded the company Vladimirsky Standard (food industry) and in 2019 topped the list of Russia’s richest representatives and politicians of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.
In June, Russian media published a WhatsApp message to Pavel Andov claiming that the Russian bombings in Ukraine were acts of “terror”. Andov denied writing the message on the Russian social network VK, saying he supported “special military action,” the authorities’ official formula for designating Russia’s war against Ukraine.
(AFP)
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