Dmitry Zelenov, a Russian real estate tycoon, died suspiciously during a recent visit to his friends on the French riviera.
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Mysterious end
Dmitry Zelenov was visiting friends in Antibes, a prominent southern city on the French riviera. While dining out, Zelenov was not feeling well. Thereafter, he fell from a flight of stairs and suffered a serious head injury, Daily Mail reports.
According to The Daily Beast, Zelenov was taken to Hospital Pasteur in the neighbouring city of Nice, but doctors were unable to do anything as he succumbed while receiving treatment.
Zelenov made a fortune after the fall of the Soviet Union by creating the real-estate giant ‘Don-Story’. A company which landed him a spot frequently among the wealthiest Russians on the Forbes list.
This was until 2008 when the international financial crisis hit the markets and Zelenov conceded considerable financial losses and saw his company being taken over by the state.
Serial baffling deaths among the elites
Zelenov’s death is the latest in a string of baffling deaths among Russian elites which coincide with the Ukraine war.
Zelenov’s death is suspiciously similar to the recent death of aviation expert and former Putin-ally, Anatoly Nikolaevich Gerashchenko.
Back in September, the former head of Moscow's Aviation Institute (MAI), tumbled down a flight of stairs and succumbed to a head injury at the headquarters of the institute.
Gerashchenko’s death came less than two weeks after Ivan Pechorin, another Putin ally, fell overboard from a ship and his dead body had been found a day later.
Pechorin had been responsible as the managing director of Putin's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.
From the beginning of the Ukraine war 10 months have passed and the list of prominent Russians who were once Putin allies and turn up dead keeps mounting.
Sources used:
-DailyMail: ‘Another Russian oligarch dies in mysterious circumstances: Tycoon, 50, suffers fatal head injury 'after falling down stairs while visiting friends in France'
-TheDailyBeast: ‘Another Russian Oligarch, Dmitry Zelenov, Dies Under Mysterious Circumstances’