Wealthy Putin critic, 65, who called Ukraine invasion ‘terror’, found dead after mysterious fall during birthday trip
A RUSSIAN politician who slammed Putin’s war in Ukraine as terror has been found dead.
Multi-millionaire Pavel Antov was celebrating his upcoming 66th birthday on holiday when he mysteriously fell from a hotel in India.
Indian media reported that the sausage tycoon jumped from the roof but Russia’s consul general Alexei Idamkin insisted he fell from a window.
Married mogul Mr Antov, listed as Russia’s richest elected politician in 2019, was found in a pool of blood in Rayagada, Odisha state two days after another friend in his party died.
Vladimir Budanov, 61, is said to have died from a heart attack on Thursday.
In June Mr Antov slammed missile strikes on Ukraine, saying: "A girl has been pulled out from under the rubble, the girl’s father appears to have died.
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"The mother is being pulled out with a crane — she is trapped under a slab. To tell the truth, it is extremely difficult to call this anything other than terror."
But he soon U-turned, deleting his social media post and issued a grovelling apology. He blamed the post on an "unfortunate misunderstanding" and a technical error.
In September another Putin critic was found suspiciously dead after an alleged suicide.
Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, was found shot on the balcony of his apartment in Moscow.
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And in August nightclub tycoon Dan Rapoport, 52, also died in suspicious circumstances in the US.
The Putin critic apparently left a suicide note and money attached to his dog which he released into a park in Washington D.C.
It comes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed yesterday in a hopeful Christmas message: "We will create our own miracle."
Zelensky told his war-torn nation: “We are coming for our people, we will return freedom to all Ukrainian men and women.”
He added: “Let’s endure this winter because we know what we are fighting for.
“Wherever we are, we will be together today. We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves.”