Russian oil executive who fled to UK took his own life after assets frozen over war in Ukraine

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A Russian oil executive who fled to the UK and claimed political asylum has died by suicide after a few of his assets have been frozen over the war in Ukraine, The Independent can reveal.

Mikhail Anatolyevich Trushin, 61, labored for Yukos oil firm, which was price almost $40bn at its peak in the early 2000s, however was successfully renationalised by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Trushin was amongst a group of Yukos executives who fled Russia in 2004 after the chief executive, and distinguished Russian dissident, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was thrown in jail.

Trushin sought sanctuary in the UK and was granted political asylum right here, with the UK refusing requests from the Russian authorities to extradite him again to Russia.

Now a coroner has dominated that he took his own life on 29 July 2022 in an outbuilding in the backyard of his Surrey mansion. Trushin was described as a health-conscious man, who went on common well being retreats, and had not been recognized to psychological well being companies. He was a personal investor, who was clever and effectively preferred, the coroner stated.

None of the workers, who appeared after him at his house, nor his spouse or romantic accomplice of 20 years, thought he would take his own life, which got here as a “complete shock”, the court docket heard.

Surrey police have stated that the dying is just not suspicious and a port-mortem examination discovered no indicators of intoxication, third-party harm, bruising, or needle puncture websites. Only marks according to dying by hanging have been discovered on his physique, the coroner stated.

It comes amid a string of deaths of senior Russian oil executives since Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian-born oligarch Mikhail Watford was additionally discovered useless from suicide in Virginia Water in February 2022 at his house, which was a six-minute drive away from Trushin’s mansion.

Trushin’s girlfriend for some 20 years instructed the coroner’s court docket in a witness assertion that when the war in Ukraine began, Trushin’s accounts in Switzerland have been frozen. While they didn’t ever converse a lot about cash, she stated this “did make him feel insecure”.

The evening that Trushin was discovered useless at house his daughter, who lives in Miami, and his accomplice each obtained an e mail from him explaining his dying. The court docket heard that Trushin lived on his own, individually from his spouse and long-term accomplice, and infrequently obtained guests at his £3.2m Surrey house, seeing associates “two to three times a year”.

He stated in the e-mail that he was bankrupt as a result of he had been cheated out of cash, and didn’t consider he was prepared to do enterprise outdoors of Russia. He stated his life had been a beautiful journey and that he needed individuals to assume he had had a coronary heart assault.

In the week main up to his dying, Trushin had stopped his each day routine of swimming in his pool. When requested why he had stopped swimming by a housekeeper, he replied that he didn’t have time as a result of there was “lots of work to be done”.

He additionally instructed his housekeeper to not placed on the alarm system for the perimeter of his property in the week main up to his dying and he would go to mattress late, generally at 2am.

One of his workers members was additionally instructed to go to Selfridges to replenish on Trushin’s favorite yoghurt however was requested to purchase solely sufficient to final till 29 July. However one among his housekeepers instructed the court docket that Trushin had been planning to go to the Cayman Islands, including: “I don’t understand why this would happen.”

The court docket was proven CCTV from the evening of his dying exhibiting him strolling from the primary home to the “summer kitchen”, an outbuilding in his backyard, the place he was later discovered useless. The subsequent individuals to be recorded on CCTV have been workers who found him in the early hours of the morning.

They had been referred to as in the midnight by Trushin’s daughter who grew distressed after she learn the e-mail suicide observe he had despatched her.

Mr Khodorkovsky, who now lives in the UK following his launch from Russian jail in 2013, reacted to the information saying: “I deeply regret the tragic details of Mikhail Trushin’s passing.

“This is news to me, as until this moment, I believed that his death was due to natural causes. Mikhail Trushin worked in my company, Yukos, in the early 2000s, coming from the Moscow City Hall. He was involved in working with the regions where Yukos conducted its operations, establishing connections with local communities. I remember him as an optimistic individual and a successful manager.”

A spokesperson for Surrey Police stated: “We were called in the early hours of Friday 29 July to an address in Virginia Water where the body of a man in his 60s had been found.

“The death was fully investigated and deemed non-suspicious.”

If you might be experiencing emotions of misery, or are struggling to cope, you’ll be able to converse to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), e mail jo@samaritans.org, or go to the Samaritans web site to discover particulars of your nearest department.

If you might be primarily based in the USA, and also you or somebody you understand wants psychological well being help proper now, name the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential disaster hotline that’s accessible to everybody 24 hours a day, seven days every week.

If you might be in one other nation, you’ll be able to go to www.befrienders.org to discover a helpline close to you.