Putin Ally’s Son Drops Dead at 35 in Bizarre Circumstances

The heir of top Putin crony Igor Sechin died suddenly at the age of 35 earlier this month and his death was apparently kept secret from the public.

Ivan Sechin, the son of Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, had been working at the oil giant alongside his father since 2014, and was awarded the For Merit to the Fatherland medal in 2015 by Vladimir Putin for his “many years of conscientious work.” He was 26 at the time.

The younger Sechin’s death was never officially announced; it was only discovered this week after Putin critic Leonid Nevzlin flagged on social media that Ivan Sechin had been added to the national registry of inheritance cases with a date of death on Feb. 5.

The well-connected VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, believed to have links to the security services, reported Tuesday that Ivan Sechin died at a mansion in the Moscow region. Citing his wife, the channel said Sechin had complained of sudden pain in the middle of the night that he believed was in his kidneys. His security detail reportedly called an ambulance after he complained of having trouble breathing and then passed out, but they failed to provide the full address, leading to medics arriving nearly two hours later, at which point Sechin had already passed.

His official cause of death was reportedly determined to be a blood clot. His father is said to have forbidden any kind of official investigation, and instead demanded that Rosneft’s internal security service be probed.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.