The glamorous daughter of a Putin ally was found dead in her Moscow apartment after ‘feeling ill’.
Natalia Bochkareva, 44, the daughter of former Putin ally Vasily Bochkarev, was found dead on July 11 in her condo in Moscow’s Presnensky district.
The doorman at his apartment called the police after he stopped answering the door.
But when police went to the property and forced open the front door, they discovered her body.
It comes as the latest in a long line of people dying of sudden illness in Russia.
Natalia Bochkareva (pictured), 44, daughter of former Putin ally Vasily Bochkarev, was found dead in her condo in Moscow’s Presnensky district on July 11.
The doorman at his apartment called the police after he stopped answering the door
But when police went to the property and forced open the front door, they discovered her body
According to initial reports, there were no signs of violent death. She was the daughter of the late Mr Bochkarev, who ruled Penza Oblast from 1998 to 2015.
The 67-year-old, who belonged to Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, died of lung cancer a year after leaving office.
Mrs Bochkareva took over the family wood-processing and bakery business after her father’s death.
But two years ago, he hit the headlines after a scandal when he sent a self-styled fortune teller RUB 16 million (GBP 136,000) to remove a curse.
However, after receiving the money, the fortune teller cut off all contact with Natalia and failed to fulfill their part of the agreement.
Russia has suffered a number of ‘suspicious’ deaths – many linked to the energy sector – as tensions rise ahead of Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
According to initial reports, there were no signs of violent death. Photo: Natalya Bochkareva
Mrs Bochkareva took over the family wood-processing and bakery business after her father’s death
In January, Magomed Abdulayev, 61, close to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, died after being hit by a car in Makhachkala on the Caspian Sea.
Ukraine immediately suggested it was the latest in a succession of Russian deaths over the past year under Vladimir Putin’s warlordism.
The Pravda Gerashchenko Telegram channel, run by Ukrainian official Anton Gerashenko, posted: ‘Another mysterious death of a Russian official.
‘Dagestan’s former prime minister was killed by a car in Makhachkala.
According to Russian media reports, Magomed Abdulayev (61) was hit by a car while crossing the road at the wrong place.
And wealthy politician Nikolai Petrunin – aka Russia’s ‘gas wunderkid’ – was just 47 and had been in a coma for a month when he died in October last year.
Former prime minister Magomed Abdulayev, 61, (pictured) was hospitalized but died of serious injuries after being hit by a car in the Caspian Sea town of Makhachkala.
Wealthy politician Nikolay Petrunin (pictured) – aka Russia’s ‘Gas Wunderkid’ – was just 47 and had been in a coma for a month when he died in October last year.
The billionaire father of three, formerly a top gas industry executive, reportedly died of complications linked to severe Covid.
He was deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s powerful energy committee and a Putin loyalist and “political guardian”.’
His business built gas pipelines for major Russian energy operators and had links to Kremlin gas behemoth Gazprom – now starved of Russian supplies to the West because of the war – and Rosneft. He announced an annual salary of up to £1.75 million.
And on September 1 last year, oil businessman Ravil Maganov, 67, fell to his death from a sixth-floor window of a Moscow hospital.
One report said he was ‘beaten’ before being ‘thrown out of a window’, but this has not been officially confirmed.
Two other deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were also reported last year amid suspicions of apparent murder-suicides.
On September 1 last year, oil tycoon Ravil Maganov (pictured), 67, fell to his death from a sixth-floor window of a Moscow hospital.
Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom finance and security officer at deputy general director level, was found dead in a trap in his £500,000 home in 2022, a day after Putin invaded Ukraine.
But he was badly beaten shortly before ‘taking his own life’, leading to speculation that he was under severe stress, according to reports.
Leonid Shulman, 60, the transport chief of Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor in Leningrad, Russia.
And billionaire Alexander Subotin, 43, also linked to Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil where he was a top manager, was found dead in May after ‘taking advice from shamans’.