New Delhi, December 27
Pavel Antov, chairman of the Committee on Agrarian Policy and Ecology of the Legislative Assembly of Russia’s Vladimir Region, died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Odisha’s Rayagada district.
Antov died while celebrating his birthday on December 25. He belonged to the ruling party of Russian President Vladimir Putin but had criticised civilian killings in Ukraine. He, however, made a turnaround by stating his post on social media was an “unfortunate misunderstanding”.
In a video, the hotel receptionist said four Russians had come to stay in the hotel on December 21 along with their travel agent from Delhi. As per reports, one of the tourists, Vladimir Budanov (61), died the same night and the police were informed the next morning. A postmortem showed the cause of the death as cardiac arrest and he was cremated in Rayagada itself. Both were sharing a room.
The death of Antov, described a “sausage multi-millionaire”, has made Western media speculate whether he was the latest among several Putin critics who have died mysteriously.
The police said an investigation was underway to find whether the death was an accident or suicide.
Russian Consul General in Calcutta Alexei Idamkin told TASS that Antov fell from the hotel window. “We are closely following the investigation and receiving all information from the Odisha Police,” he added.