How did Pavel Antov die? Russian sausage tycoon and Ukraine war critic, 65, found dead in hotel
ODISHA, INDIA: Russian sausage tycoon Pavel Antov was found dead at an Indian hotel two days after a friend died while on the same vacation. The affluent man, who was also a local politician, had just finished celebrating his birthday at the hotel after arriving in the eastern state of Odisha. Antov was a well-known figure in the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow.
Antov is the latest among numerous Russian businessmen who have inexplicably died since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Several of them had expressed their public disapproval of the war. The 65-year-old Antov reportedly fell from a hotel window on Sunday in the city of Rayagada, according to accounts in Russian media. Another member of his four-person Russian group, Vladimir Budanov, was declared dead on Friday, December 23, at the hotel, as reported by Express.
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According to Odisha police superintendent Vivekananda Sharma, Budanov died from a stroke while his companion "was depressed after his death, and he too died." According to Alexei Idamkin, the Russian consul in Kolkata, the police did not perceive a "criminal element in these unfortunate occurrences." Budanov might have "consumed a lot of alcohol as he had liquor bottles," as per his tourist guide.
The sausage tycoon, one of Russia's top meat sausage producers, was the founder of Vladimir Standard, a meat firm. According to a report, he also served as the chairman of the Vladimir region's legislative assembly's committee on agricultural policy, environmental management, and ecology. Antov was one of Russia's wealthiest parliamentarians by stated earnings in 2019. At the time, Forbes Russia calculated his declared yearly earnings to be £130 million ($156M).
Antov was a vocal critic of the war who criticized the Russian missile strikes on Ukraine in June. "A girl has been pulled out from under the rubble. The girl's father appears to have died. 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," he reportedly said at the time. However, immense backlash forced Antov to eat his own words and delete the statement. He later stated on social media that he supported the president and his war, and that he was a "patriot of my country," BBC reported.