The mysterious deaths among high-ranking Russian officials continue, with the addition of Vice Governor Igor Petrov, who was found dead in his country home. The 65-year-old vice governor of Russia's Leningrad Oblast was discovered with a gunshot wound, although police found no signs of forced entry. Authorities suggest the fatal wound could have been accidentally inflicted while Petrov was cleaning his firearm. His body was located in his countryside residence in the village of Yukki, Vsevolozhsky District, with officials vaguely confirming his "sudden death". Interestingly, the property, complete with a pool, is legally registered to Petrov's elderly mother.

Born on December 9, 1959, in the city of Slantsy, Petrov graduated from the Novosibirsk State Technical University in 1993 with a specialty in "Automation and Remote Control." He was the general director of JSC Radio-Telecommunication Company before entering politics in 2005. Petrov served as the head of a municipal entity and as the chairman of the Yukki rural settlement, eventually becoming the vice governor of the Leningrad region in 2017. His responsibilities included liaising with the legislative body and overseeing the voting on regional head projects in the legislative assembly.

The trend of sudden high-ranking official deaths in Russia is alarming. Early in 2025, a senior official from the Arkhangelsk regional administration died during a hockey game, with one allegedly committing suicide while the other survived but claimed to have no memory of the event.

In the backdrop of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, mysterious deaths of top executives from major oil and gas companies have become an unsettling pattern. Falling from a window has become a disturbingly common cause, prominently illustrated by the 2022 death of Ravil Maganov, the 68-year-old chairman of Lukoil's board, who reportedly fell from a sixth-floor window at Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital.

  Igor Petrov, Leningrad Oblast

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