Indian police are looking into the sudden death of a wealthy Russian politician who reportedly opposed the war in Ukraine, according to authorities.
Pavel Antov, 65, was on vacation with three other Russian nationals when his body was discovered Saturday in a pool of blood outside his lodgings in eastern Odisha state.
He died two days after another travel companion, Vladimir Bidenov, was discovered unresponsive at the same hotel after what appeared to be a heart attack and was unable to be revived.
Although there had been no indication of foul play up to this point, police said they were reviewing CCTV footage, questioning hotel staff, and awaiting comprehensive autopsy reports.
“All possible angles as regards to the deaths of two Russian nationals are being verified,” regional police chief Rajesh Pandit told AFP.
Bidenov’s heart attack had likely been caused by binge drinking and a possible drug overdose, he said.
“So far it seems that Antov accidentally fell from the hotel terrace,” he added.
“He was probably disturbed by the death of his friend and went to the hotel terrace and likely fell to his death from there.”
The officer said Antov and his friends had arrived in the state in mid-December and visited several locations before arriving at their hotel in Rayagada at the start of last week.
Two local travel agents accompanying the party had also been questioned, along with the other two Russian members of the holiday group.
Antov, who represents President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, has been a member of a regional parliament 150 kilometres east of Moscow since 2018.
Prior to entering politics, he established the food-processing company Vladimirsky Standart. In 2019, the Russian edition of Forbes magazine ranked him as the richest parliamentarian and senior official in the nation.
A WhatsApp message attributed to Antov that claimed a missile attack by the Kremlin on Ukraine constituted “terrorism” was published by Russian media in June.
Antov claimed he did not write the message and supported Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine on the Russian social media platform VK.