Two Russian officials and allies of Vladimir Putin dead on the same day

The deaths of Nikolay Bortsov and Dzhasharbek Uzdenov, both allies to the Russian leader, have raised eyebrows across the world.

Approximately 20 high-profile Russians with ties to Vladimir Putin have died in mysterious circumstances since the war began.

Mr Uzdenov passed away due to a “serious and prolonged illness”, according to officials. The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, has yet to comment on his death. Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the United Russia faction shared his condolences, saying “death snatched another comrade from our ranks”.

“Sensitive, attentive, strong-willed, always ready to help — this is how we will remember Jasharbek Borisovich. He fought for a long time, but, unfortunately, the disease turned out to be stronger. We will miss him very much,” he said.

Mr. Bortsov, aged 77, died at his home in the Lipetsk region. However, the official cause of his death is yet to be announced.

He had recently been struck by sanctions from the US and Western allies following the Ukraine invasion.

He was also one of the nation’s wealthiest government employees with an estimated net worth of $550 million, earning a spot on Forbes’ Russian rich list in 2021.

A number of Putin’s allies have wound up dead following the outbreak of the Ukraine war in February 2022. Vladimir Nikolayevich Sungorkin – who was editor-in-chief of Putin’s “favourite paper” – was rumoured to have suffered a stroke after falling ill on a business trip.

The 68-year-old, who was in charge of the Russian state newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, died “suddenly” on Wednesday after showing signs of “suffocation”, his colleague Leonid Zakharov said.

He was accompanying Sungorkin on the trip to the village of Roshchino in Russia’s far east when the media magnate fell ill.

Zakharov said: “It happened absolutely suddenly, nothing foreshadowed.

“We were driving, we were already making our way towards Khabarovsk, we planned to get there in the evening today, and from there to Moscow.

“Three minutes later, Vladimir began to suffocate. We took him out for fresh air, he was already unconscious. Nothing helped.

“The doctor who did the initial examination said that apparently, it was a stroke. But this is the initial conclusion.”

Sungorkin had worked as pro-Kremlin paper KP’s editor-in-chief and director-general since 1997 after starting there as a reporter in 1976.

In September 2022, another of Putin’s close-knit allies died after he mysteriously “fell overboard” from a boat.

Ivan Pechorin – who was credited with developing Russia’s vast Arctic resources – fell in waters close to Russky Island, KP reported.

His body was found after a search lasting more than a day. The 39-year-old had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok.

Shortly before Pechorin’s death, Ravil Maganov – chairman of the Russian oil giant Lukoil, a firm that openly criticised Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine – reportedly died after plunging from a hospital window.

In July, Yuri Voronov, 61, head of a transport and logistics company for a Gazprom-linked company, was found dead in his swimming pool, with a leading friend who is a top criminologist warning of foul play.

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg amid suspicions that apparent suicides may have been murders.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered in a noose by his lover the day after war started in Ukraine in February.

In the same elite Leninsky gated housing development in Leningrad region three weeks earlier, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.