Vyacheslav Leontyev, the former publisher of the Soviet-era newspaper Pravda, fell to his death from his Moscow apartment Saturday evening in what Russian officials claim may have been a suicide.
Leontyev plunged to his death at age 87, according to the Daily Mail. Officials say Leontyev fell from a fifth-floor window, a drop of roughly 70 feet. Russian investigators say he suffered a nervous breakdown but provided no further details. He reportedly was found dead at the scene. Unconfirmed reports suggest he had been suffering from health problems in the weeks leading up to his death.
Exiled Russian journalist Andrey Malgin cast suspicion on the official narrative.
“The window falls continue,” the Daily Mail quoted Malgin as saying. “Leontyev fell from a window. He was found near his home on Molodogvardeyskaya Street, where he lived.”
“He knew a lot about the ‘Party’s money’ — the Pravda publishing house was the most profitable enterprise in the business empire of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union] Central Committee,” Malgin added.
Leontyev’s fall fits a broader pattern of deaths involving prominent Russians who either criticized the regime or held ties to major state-run companies in the years surrounding the Ukraine invasion. In September, authorities found the body of former St. Petersburg transport chief Alexander Fedotov outside a luxury Moscow hotel. He had been staying on a high floor during a business trip. Police launched a criminal investigation but found no suicide note.
Fedotov had links to Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, who died under strange circumstances in July just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin fired him. Though officially ruled a suicide, some reports claim Starovoit was tortured and murdered.
(Featured Image Media Credit: State Department Photo/Public Domain)
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